What will be the voyage of humankind into the next century and beyond? What does our destiny hold? In some ways, we are the most technologically advanced society in the history of humankind. Our world is changing as a result of the age of information and communication. This, coupled with high-speed transportation systems, has resulted in a shrinking global village. We are now at a crossroads in the history of human civilization. The path that we follow into the future is surely ours to choose. But what are the choices? Do we continue to make decisions about our relationships with one another and Mother Earth that lack consciousness? Do we continue to consume the Earth’s resources at an unsustainable level? Or do we walk down another path, a path where we begin to understand the deep and profound meaning of life and how we fit into the universal tapestry?

If we choose to do this, we can live in harmony with all life on the planet and with the Earth herself. This path leads to a vital, sustainable civilization. In it, we nurture and support the sanctity and sacredness of all of life.

When we continue on the path of consciousness, our planet will be vital. There will be global peace through the gift of spirituality and inner peace. We will then be successful in creating work places, communities and a planet where there is love, respect and peace for all.

By Douglas Coupland, 2009.

“Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favours when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Syracuse University commencement address, May8, 1994

Zack, Julien, Samantha, Harj, and Diana are five people from different parts of the world who are stung by bees. This is a big deal because bees are believed to be extinct and the authorities are all over it, but also because video footage related to the stings goes viral on youtube, making them “The Wonka Children”.

Generation A is a very contemporary novel coming from the perspective of digital life that explores the cultures of reading and storytelling that it is supposed to be at odds with. It is lovely to read a novel that engages in a real way with technology and how it changes us instead of portraying it as the end of culture or showing a dystopian future, never mind a novel that manages to be smart, intellectual, funny, serious, and trivial all at once … a mash-up in print!

I love that Douglas Coupland writes about generations after him in a way that is fair and truly engaged (he was born in 1961). He is also an artist, screenwriter, playwright, actor, and New York Times blogger who lives in West Vancouver.

http://www.coupland.com/

Food glorious food! I just can’t get enough.

But as much as I love eating food, I have to be the world’s worst cook. Slight problem one might say. Well maybe it’s more a matter of me being too dam lazy to cook more than it being inedible!

Dribble some maple syrup on and that's my ideal breakfast!

But when it comes to choosing a dish my palate seems to reject the traditional in favour of something a bit more exotic. The more I think of my favourite foods and what I love to eat the more I realise that my stomach prefers those meals that originate from further afield than good old UK soil.

Coming from Northern Ireland I have had to endure the odd joke about being a tatty lover but if i’m honest I’d take a big bowl of pasta or rice over a bunch of muddy old spuds any day.

The food of my fore fathers...

I sometimes think I have a secret Italian background. Risotto, pasta, pizza, whatever, if its Italian I want it!

My daily diet...I wish

I have no interest in pies or casseroles or a good English Sunday Roast.

Sunday Roast anyone?

What would I like to sample tonight? Some Japanese sushi maybe, or a nice Thai green curry. Let me see, lets say I want something proper spicy, an Indian curry could do the trick.

Luckily for me I was born during the era of interconnectedness; the time of the global village; a time when you can walk down your High Street and get food that has travelled hundreds of miles across the globe to your corner shop.

A selection of what Thai food has to offer

To be able to taste the culinary delights of the exotic from your own living room in the UK is something I love but is easy to take for granted.

Without the advances in technology, communications and transport that enabled the food of other countries to be brought to our own I just don’t know what I would do!

I would have to suffer my mum’s shepherd’s pie on a daily basis. The thought just isnt worth thinking about.

Not the most appealing meal for me

Some people may worry about the possibility of being able to term our world a global village, but my stomach isn’t complaining.

Quite frankly my life would be that little bit emptier without my Moroccan couscous.

I would live off this stuff if people would let me...

The one positive I can pull from what some term the evils of globalisation, the benefits it has for my taste buds.

Influenta social media, recunoscuta de data aceasta si de lingvisti si lexicografi.  Cuvantul anului 2009, conform New Oxford American Dictionary, este verbul to unfriend.

Unfriend = “To remove someone as a friend on a social networking site such as Facebook”

Hi.

Another article published in Reporter magazine.

http://reportermag.com/article/minority-report/the-opportunities-of-a-global-village

Next week I’ll have one published about TEDxRochester for those of you who couldn’t attend!

Today’s choice is a fashion-forward import that could catch on.

Thanks to Rachel for suggesting Stellan as Name of the Day.

Stellan sounds like the masculine counterpart to Stella, but that’s not so.  While Stella comes from the Latin for star, Stellan is Scandinavian.  His exact origins are uncertain – some link him to the Norse stilling, for peaceful.  Other sites insist that he means star, too.

A Swedish website suggests that Stellan is actually German in origin.  That fits with the evolution of our word still, meaning “at rest,” which traces back to the Old High German stillen.  But nearly all of the notable bearers have been Swedes, including:

• Stellan Mörner, an early 20th century surrealist painter;
• Stellan Skarsgård, the actor seen in movies from Good Will Hunting to Angels & Demons to Mamma Mia.

The list gets more obscure from there.  There’s a World Table Tennis champ from the 1970s, Stellan Bengtsson, plus a current international chess champion, Stellan Brynell.  There was also a Danish film director, Stellan Rye, who died during World War I.

With an uncertain meaning and a lack of famous bearers – at least in the US – it is possible that Stellan could remain obscure forevermore.

Or not.  Actors Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany named their son Stellan after Mr. Skarsgård back in 2003.  And consider these sound-alikes:

• Rhyming Kellen comes in at #444;
• Other -l in the middle, ends-in-n choices include Dylan (#51), Colin (#114) and Collin (#143) plus Nolan (#131);
• Sharing that same construction and a modern, 21st century vibe, the US Top 200 also includes Jaylen (#184) and Rylan (#217).

Factor in popularity of girls’ names Stella and Ella, and it is easy to imagine parents embracing this masculine moniker.

But that hasn’t happened yet.  Stellan has never appeared in the US Top 1000, and he’s not terribly common in Sweden, either.  (At least he’s not in their Top 100.)

Some might like the idea of Stellan as a Swedish heritage choice, but that feels like a stretch.  It’s probably more accurate to group Stellan with that cluster of names that have some slight history, but are almost considered modern inventions.  Stellan fits right in with choices like Kai – the name of Jennifer Connelly’s firstborn – or Chase.

So if you’re seeking a boys’ name that feels more authentic than a smoosh of popular elements (like Rylan, Kyler or the -adens) but still appears novel and relatively untethered to religion or a specific heritage, Stellan might work for you.

With the passing of a healthy teen in Toronto from the H1N1 virus, Brian asks;

What if the H1N1 Virus is multi-vectored as part of its modus operandi, and in a way that we don’t understand?

After all, isn’t that how a successfully mutating, human-killing virus should be expected to behave, and scientifically approached, in the year 2009?

What if the difference between a seemingly healthy person getting infected by the H1N1 virus and dying, versus getting infected by the H1N1 virus and having a non-fatal, slightly discomforting bout of the flu, is more than one simply coming into ‘positive’ contact with the H1N1 virus?   What if one also needs to have, virtually simultaneously or extremely recently, eaten something that was fowl, slightly lower on the food chain and was likewise very recently exposed to the H1N1 virus in its “natural” environment?

The Global Village is not just about people!

Interested in nature or peacemaking ? Check out Jon Young

Collective intelligence has been discussed now for decades, but what we see now is how new communication technologies such as the World Wide Web and the Internet can provide a vast amount of information to people, from all parts of the globe and allow for them to work together in innovative ways.

 As MIT Centre for Collective Intelligence states in its main research question is

“How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?”(MIT, 2006)

 Things we do know is that collective intelligence has been around for a very long time, it can be argued at least since mankind has been here. A great example taken from an MIT communications forum, they talk about recent and new kinds of collective intelligence, which can be linked with The Global Village.

 Google is a new kind of collective intelligence, but this is not just about Google technology, although powerful, it is about the entire system it is part of! This includes the millions up millions of people all over the globe creating webpage’s, linking these webpage’s to each other, and the Google technology that harvest all that knowledge and then gives us amazingly intelligent answers to the question we type in the Google search engine.

 Importantly to note from this is that this does not just depend upon the computer or just on people but on the combination of literally thousands of each.

 We draw relationships between Collective Intelligence and The Global Village as both now work side by side; no longer do we have a segregation of people or access to the collective. The 20^th century has made vastly possible for all people from all walks of life to be part of both and to be able to contribute.

 McLuhan (1964) suggested that

 “as electronic communication evolved we would live in a boundless global village”

 As relationships are drawn between both these enormous topics we can see this through various examples such as Google and now Wikipedia.  What Wikipedia does so well is not so much the technology itself but has invented an organisational design/structure which allows thousands of people from all over the world to collectively create a very large intellectual product with almost no centralised control mechanism, as most of the contributors to the wiki are done by volunteers.

 Allowing for the editing and the sharing of information,

“Time has ceased, space has vanished. We now live in a global village… a simultaneous happening” (1967: p.63)

 The election of Barack Obama brought the age of digital media to the forefront, it previously had been used but not to the extent that Obama administration used during the 2008 USA Presidential election, this showed what and how the Internet could be used in order to change the way politics was viewed and interacted with.

 “There were subtle but incredibly powerful and viral mechanisms to give every single person a way to engage. It was no longer the idea of being a passive supporter. Yu could give money, or organise meet-ups, go to My BarrackObama.com” (Rowe, 2009)

This not only showed what the global village represented but also allowed the collective to be part and come up with its own messages or videos or reports. This not only has been a key element of this administration but now in 2009 that very same administration is switching its white house website to open source in order to draw on the expertise of the collective intelligence and use of computers in order to be to be more transparent and help people access information.

By allowing people to edit and recode the website with innovation it shows how the world now is coming to every person around the globe and that the concept of a global village is not something we talk about but we live in it, its relationship to collective intelligence cannot be argued or even dismissed as they both are now working side by side to enable us to reach new heights.

 O’Reilly and Battelle state that  “To understand where the Web is going, it helps to return to one of the fundamental ideas underlying Web 2.0, namely that successful network applications are systems for harnessing collective intelligence” (2009, p. 2).

 The way that this will impact on my professional work will be not only, to reinvent some aspects of the industry but also help innovate new ways of being able to market and advertise to people all around the world “The Global Village” and by using and integrating “The Collective Intelligence”.

This is evident through ‘New Media’ who largely part of the global village and the collective intelligence, by providing new medians for people to connect, interact, innovate. With all the technology new means are being developed in order to make people, groups and computers to work more intelligently than ever before. The advancement of advertising and social networks now play a pivotal role in day to lives and bringing all these aspects of the world together is the challenge for the collective but also the people who use this system of communications.

References

 Internet World Stats. (2009). Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/

MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. (2009). Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://cci.mit.edu/

O’Rielly, T., & Battelle, J. (2009). Web Squared: Web 2.0 Five Years On. O’Reilly Media, Inc.

 Perez, C.J. (2009). Tech CEO Parade Slated for Web 2.0 Summit. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.pcworld.com/.

 PRWeb. (2009, October 21). Collective Intelligence Summit – Leading Prediction Markets 6 November 2009 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, [Press release]. Chicago: Collective Intelligence Summit.

 White House switches to open source. (2009). Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/

 Wikipedia. (2009). Retrieved October 24, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_village_(term)

 Wikipedia. (2009). Retrieved October 24, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_village_(term)

She’s the spare sister of Biblical powerhouse Hannah – and a name in her own right, too.

Thanks to Rachel for suggesting Hana as Name of the Day.

It’s hard to avoid Hannah.  She’s a Biblical good girl, the virtuous mother of Samuel in the Old Testament.  Usually listed with the meaning grace, Hannah is feminine without being frilly and simple without being plain.

Of course, you’ll hear Hannah everywhere.  She ranked in the US Top 100 back in the 1980s.  More than 32,000 newborn Hannahs arrived in the decade best remembered for Flashdance and the Rubik’s Cube.  By the 90s, Hannah was a hands-down hit, bestowed upon 158,000 baby girls.  And in the current decade, she’s a solid Top Ten, already worn by 148,000 newborns.

While her popularity has slipped of late – she ranked just #17 in 2008 – you’ll still hear plenty of parents considering Hannah.

Just like Jennifer led to Jenifer and Zoe led to Zoey, some parents decided a variant spelling was in order.  Hanna was #367 in 2008.  And Hana ranked #827.  (The similar, but not related, Johanna came in at #448.)

But Hana isn’t just a stripped-down version of the name.  In Czech, Hana is the accepted spelling, and a fairly common given name, worn by athletes and models alike.  Hana also features as a nickname for Johana in several Eastern European languages.

Hana also boasts pan-global appeal, with other meanings and origins attributed, including:

• Japanese for flower, bloom or blossom;
• Arabic for happiness – though that’s probably best spelled Hanaa;
• Persian for flower;
• Korean for one;
• Albanian for moon.

You’ll also find Hana on the map – she’s an isolated hamlet located on the eastern end of Maui, in Hawaii.

As with many names with multiple meanings attached, it is tricky – even impossible – to verify some of them.  The Japanese origins are sound, with related names including Hanae, Hanako and Hanaye in use, too.

While there are plenty of famous Hannahs, it is a tough to turn up Hanas of note.  On the animated series Kim Possible, Hana Stoppable is “unstoppable” -  Han Stoppable.  (Say it fast.)  A minor character on the first season of Heroes was hero Hana Gitelman.

Just as Hannah herself is falling in the rankings, Hana is sliding from use.  Cross-cultural vibe aside, she’s just not different enough from a tremendously popular name to satisfy most parents seeking something uncommon.  She peaked at #621 back in 2002, and seems headed for obscurity.

The most interesting twist on Hannah/Hana might just be Hanae.  It’s the given name of design powerhouse Hanae Mori, and a rising favorite in France, where it is spelled Hannaé, Hanaé and Hanaë.  Pronounced hah nay AY, she’s an intriguing import, if a bit tricky to say for the average American.

But if nearly 400 American girls were named Chanel in 2008 alone, why couldn’t a few be named after a Japanese design icon?

Should you need a name that works in Tokyo and Prague equally well, Hana is a safe bet.  If you’re looking for a truly innovative pick for a daughter, Hana will probably leave you wishing you’d looked a little bit more.

Coming to London at the start of the summers was a big respite from the heat and dust of Hyderabad. Well, a lot of things changed within a couple of hours …not just the continent and the country.

To begin with, we adjusted our watches according to Greenwich Mean Time, which was roughly 4.30 hours behind Indian Standard Time. I buried my short sleeve T-shirts and Kurtis into the suitcase to make room in the closet for the sweaters and jackets, which had not seen the shine of daylight since we wore them last on our honeymoon to Solang Valley in March 2008. Our new home in Croydon was warm and cozy but one thing that struck us on entering the apartment was…..”Aw no ceiling fans” ! No doubts, it was a heavenly feeling to sleep under a quilt after a long time……In Hyderabad, it was a luxury because I would have to rent the ‘Snow World’  to get that feeling. Ha ha ha….

Whatever cash money was left in our wallets was carefully tucked away and replaced by pounds and pennies. Well, honestly, it took me about a couple of days to recognise and differentiate each coin of 1 p, 2 p,  5 p, 10 p and 20 p. Currency notes were easier to manage with just 5, 10 and 20 to deal with. It was funny to think how, in the initial few days, I struggled with the coins at the cash counters of the stores because I took time to read each coin before adding them up to the required total !

Everything seemed expensive here….everytime I return from shopping, I would calculate how much I spent, convert it into INR and sit back  awestruck thinking and comparing rates ! From paying Rs.50 per kilo for Brinjals in Hyderabad (that made my mother awestruck back home as she paid just Rs.10 a kilo) to paying Rs.40 ( 50 pence) for one medium sized brinjal, it was a bit too much to accept for the quintessential middle class wife in me. It took some time for me to accept the dynamics of economics in this country.

Interestingly I downloaded a currency tool bar in my desktop that showed the latest valuation of GBP in INR all the time. I religiously followed it and quietly smiled whenever the Rupee fell in value against the Pound. Oh! another problem I encountered was getting used to LBS system and asking for “a pound of peas” and not “half kilo peas” in the street markets (considerably cheaper than retail outlets) because the farmer would not know SI system and how much was half a kilo !

One of the things we began to miss was chapatis as being new we were yet to discover many shops. After about 15 days sans rotis we discovered a Pakistani store, “Save More” that catered to the Asians. We were absolutely delighted to find everything that a typical Indian kitchen would require….right from ‘Pillsbury’ atta, ‘Priya Pickle ‘to ‘Haldiram Bhujia’, to Maggi and masalas of every kind. Well, this place would rather be called “Spend More” because each time since then I greedily bought more stuff than I really wanted .

Well, the best feeling so far has been the feeling of living in a global village were I get to mingle with so many different people of diverse backgrounds. My landlord is Scottish and my neighbour is an old African lady. A Polish lady ( Speaks very less English, nothing more than thanks, hi, bye, yes and no) cleans my home whenever I call. I shop for grocery at a Pakistani store and buy my noodles from a Chinese food store. The pharmacist I visit is Sri Lankan and there is a Bangladeshi restaurant, ‘Chat House’ near my home, where the people love to speak with us in Bangla each time we visit them. They speak in a different tone (east bengal, Bangal) than what we speak in West Bengal and they love to hear our style. The owner, British Bangladeshi by birth, wishes to holiday in India some time. Divided by borders, united by heart……what more to say.

The last known high-quality photograph of Lincoln, taken March 1865

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives.

All about the White House President:
Abraham Linclon – 1861 – 1865

“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families–second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks…. My father … removed from Kentucky to … Indiana, in my eighth year…. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up…. Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher … but that was all.”

Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to attain knowledge while working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store at New Salem, Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit of courts for many years. His law partner said of him, “His ambition was a little engine that knew no rest.”

He married Mary Todd, and they had four boys, only one of whom lived to maturity. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation that won him the Republican nomination for President in 1860.

As President, he built the Republican Party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the Union cause. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy.

Lincoln never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue. This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettysburg: “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs heralded an end to the war. In his planning for peace, the President was flexible and generous, encouraging Southerners to lay down their arms and join speedily in reunion.

The spirit that guided him was clearly that of his Second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C.: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds…. “

On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who somehow thought he was helping the South. The opposite was the result, for with Lincoln’s death, the possibility of peace with magnanimity died.

All sources taken from www.whitehouse.gov

Would you name your daughter Sue – just Sue?  In the Netherlands, plenty of parents are opting for a related nickname name.

Thanks to Kelleita for suggesting Sanne as Name of the Day.

I first mentioned Sanne more than a year ago in a post about Susannah.  While Susannah is feminine and conjures up images of a pinafore-clad girl churning butter, Sanne is cosmopolitan, even sleek.  And yet both come to us via Shoshannah – a Biblical, Hebrew name meaning lily that might just stretch all the way back to Ancient Egypt.

There’s nothing throwback about Sanne.  While she’s never charted in the US Top 1000, she’s currently all the rage in the Netherlands, ranking #5 there in 2008, and even reaching the top spot #1 in recent years.

For an American audience, popular Dutch names range from the familiar (Sophie, Emma, Eva and Julia all feature in their Top Ten) to the surprising (Isa, Noa, Lieke, Lotte, Anouk and Maud are all current favorites, too).  While a few of these – Lieke seems like a real stretch – would not import well to the US, many of the others have cross-cultural appeal.

Let’s put Sanne in that second group.  The Dutch derived Sanne from Susanne, as a contracted form.  (Scandinavians did the same with Susanna and arrived at Sanna.)

But what if you’re not Dutch?  Let’s suppose you’ve never even been to Amsterdam.  Would Sanne work for you?

Maybe.  The ending -sana is common in plenty of languages.  There’s the Russian Oksana, the Nigerian Hasana, even the (probably) Persian Roxana.

On the map, you’ll find a hamlet in Northern Germany and a village in eastern Nepal both called Sanne.

If we think of Sanne as a twist on the diminutive Sue, there’s even a stronger case for her use.  As a stand-alone name, Sue charted in the US Top 100 from 1939 through 1950.  That’s more than 40,000 Sues born in the 1940s alone.

Notable Sannes are few, and almost entirely  European:

• Sanne Salmonsen was a Danish pop singer in the 80s;
• A handful of (mostly) Dutch athletes wear the name;
• The winner of Holland’s Next Top Model back in 2006 was Sanne Nijhof.  Fellow contestants included Marcia, Annika, Daisy and Charmayne.

While Sanne isn’t hard to say – SAH nuh, sort of like the Latina Ana with an S – the spelling could prove problematic.  If you’ve never seen this name before, it could be tempting to rhyme her with sane, or even just give her a one-syllable pronunciation – sand sans the final d, maybe.

But if you’re willing to work through those challenges, Sanne makes for an international import that could wear well on both sides of the Atlantic.

John Kuri*

Vivimos en la era de la comunicación masiva instantánea tanto oral como escrita. Fue apenas hace 43 años cuando Marshall McLuhan escribió en Comprendiendo los Medios “hoy, después de más de un siglo de tecnología electrónica, hemos extendido nuestro sistema nervioso central a un ámbito global, aboliendo tanto el tiempo como el espacio en cuanto a lo que concierne a nuestro planeta…” La percepción de McLuhan sobre la tecnología electrónica era basada en lo visual y lo auditivo llevado al individuo a través de la radio, la televisión y el teléfono. Ahora vivimos en la era digital de la computadora, teléfonos inalámbricos y la emisión de señales de video a través de banda ancha, que instantáneamente conectan a las personas, los lugares y eventos más de lo que antes había sido posible en la historia. El término que McLuhan acuñó, Global Village, ha ido de un concepto a una realidad de tiempo inmediato en nuestras experiencias vernáculas y comunes.

Con la conexión inmediata a lo visual y a lo auditivo se ha amplificado exponencialmente el poder y el efecto de la comunicación. Ya no vivimos en la época en la que solamente los métodos tradicionales y convencionales pueden distribuir la información e impactar a la sociedad. Una idea puede esparcirse a través del mundo y llegaran a todos los rincones de la tierra por fuentes no establecidas. Dicha idea puede estar contenida en un video, una canción, una imagen, una petición de ayuda o un momento de humor, un mensaje de texto, un blog o un e‐mail.

Un ejemplo de esto es un fenómeno de YouTube titulado “la evolución del baile”. En mayo de 2006, el video hecho por un comediante estadounidense desconocido, fue publicado en el sitio de intercambio de videos en Internet. Sin una costosa campaña de medios o esfuerzos de promoción, el video fue visto más de noventa millones de veces en los primeros ocho meses de haber sido publicado. Una persona desconocida le sacó una sonrisa a los rostros de más de noventa millones de personas.


Hay muchas historias de este tipo de comunicación masiva que toman lugar en minutos y algunas tienen un tono mucho más serio. Algunas promueven un mensaje entre un número considerable de personas, como el llamado a la manifestación de Beirut en 2005 tras el asesinato del Primer Ministro Rafiq Al Hariri. En ese caso, los mensajes de texto y la comunicación inalámbrica lograron que aproximadamente un millón de personas se reunieran en el centro de la ciudad en pocas horas. A través de dicha manifestación los ciudadanos de un país se hicieron escuchar entre los grandes poderes de la región. Y, en un magnífico uso de la cámara documental, Soula Saad capturó toda la experiencia en su película El levantamiento de Beirut. Cualquiera que sea el ejemplo, el punto es que una sola persona puede llegarle a millones y, por lo tanto, afectar la forma de pensar de un extraordinario números de personas.

En el centro del proceso creativo está el poder de una idea. Colectivamente, nosotros, los que nos comunicamos con el mundo a través de los medios del entretenimiento, contamos con el poder de para influir a través de nuestras ideas creativas. Y esa es una responsabilidad que nos hemos ganado. La población mundial, ahora una aldea global, goza del beneficio, y el detrimento, de la comunicación instantánea.

Existe también la cultura del cinismo. Para un cínico, cabe dentro de lo normal sugerir un mensaje que vaya en contra de la opinión popular. La cultura del cinismo es una barrera importante de superar a través del proceso creativo. La música hip‐hop y el rap por ejemplo, muchas veces han provocado reacciones negativas. Asimismo, el mundo del cine y de la televisión, ha utilizado por años imágenes sobre la ilegalidad de una manera glamurosa, provocando que los consumidores más jóvenes sean inmunizados al verdadero significado de las imágenes y las palabras que algunos encuentran tan entretenidas y que otros imitan.

Seguimos viendo la moral y el carácter de las generaciones más jóvenes ser afectados por los medios del entretenimiento, los cuales se dirigen por la estrategia del consumo de la cultura pop, la cual se nutre de la gratificación superficial. Estoy avergonzado de escribir que con demasiada frecuencia, se caracteriza al Árabe como un terrorista, en la producción de películas y videojuegos, en Hollywood.

Como novelista y guionista he tomado un enfoque diferente en mis dos últimas novelas y guiones cinematográficos, por ejemplo. Una de ellas es una novela histórica que narra una dolorosa verdad sobre el capítulo del temprano desarrollo de Estados Unidos y se titula Cheyene Rising Sun. El otro, Takin It Back, habla de la aparente desesperanza en el mundo de cinco adolescentes citadinos que viven en una metrópolis estadounidense.

Un mentor adulto les proporciona una visión de inspiración a estos adolescentes para que alcancen lo que pensaban era imposible.

Estas dos novelas, diseñadas para convertirse en películas, tienen un tema en común: la condición de desesperanza provocada por el comportamiento ilegal, que de otro modo llegaría a la desesperación, pero dicho desánimo se ve frustrado por las acciones positivas y el pensamiento progresivo de un visionario. Hay un hilo en común presente para todas las culturas, independientemente de su localización. La necesidad de superar condiciones abrumantes, ya sea en relación a la corrupción en los negocios, en el gobierno, la religión, o la sociedad en general, es un problema que se enfrenta en todos lados.

Una buena historia revela a las personas en conflicto, tanto aquéllas que son acechadas como aquéllas que propagan la corrupción en la conducta legal de la sociedad. Y, en donde hay gente, hay drama humano. El resultado provocado por una circunstancia que afecta la condición de vida, especialmente el Estado de derecho, penetrará en cada vida dentro de su alcance.

El desarrollar una historia basada en el tipo de vida que puede ser vivido por cualquiera en cualquier parte, un “hombre común”, puede ayudar a los escritores a extraer lo universal dentro de lo local. La clave está en utilizar a un personaje cuyos problemas sean identificables para cualquiera. Y dar al personaje un telón de fondo que como escritor desee explorar. La existencia de una condición social con un telón de fondo de una historia humana, con la que se pueda relacionar fácilmente, se convierte en la base para atraer a una audiencia y, por ende, comunicar un mensaje.

El personaje principal en Cheyenne Rising Sun, Ted Rising Sun, es el líder de la Nación Cheyenne. La novela cuenta la historia a través de sus ojos y sus sueños a mediados y finales del siglo XX.

Mientras que el telón de fondo es el continuo conflicto entre los Indios Americanos y el gobierno estadounidense, la historia personal es muy común y conmovedora. Ted trata de superar el alcoholismo, su fracaso como padre de dos después de un divorcio y tener una relación decente con sus padres. Esos temas son muy comunes en todo el mundo. A medida que Ted enfrenta sus propios demonios empieza a luchar con el gobierno para mejorar la educación de los niños de su tribu. Esa es una causa noble. Es muy inspirador darse cuenta de que un hombre común, que se enfrenta a los prejuicios, al poder gubernamental y a la autoridad, va en contra de tales fuerzas abrumadoras, y de hecho, gana una batalla que cambia la vida de muchos.

Los medios de comunicación pueden promover un ideal noble en un mundo de sobrecargado por información, en medio de la preocupación de la audiencia sobre mensajes y propósitos subliminales. La novela Takin’ It Back, que pronto será una película, es un ejemplo a considerar.

El personaje principal es un teniente de policía que lo ha visto todo, pero que por alguna razón no ha perdido la esencia de su trabajo que es “proteger y servir”. Él es convencido por su nueva y persuasiva novia, una atractiva mujer de casi treinta años quien era antes una estrella del baloncesto en la liga estudiantil, de involucrarse en una actividad que se convierte en su una vocación.

Estos dos adultos aceptan entrenar a unos irreverentes adolescentes en un equipo de baloncesto cuyo entrenador, un policía fuera de turno, había sido al principio de la historia, víctima de un tiroteo de pandillas. La recompensa y la motivación final de los personajes principales es el involucrarse con este grupo de niños sin padres y el giro que le dan a las vidas de los adolescentes. Estos jóvenes, si se les dejara en la calle, podrían ser víctimas de las pandillas y las drogas que venden. La ironía personal del teniente de policía es su intento continuo de acercarse efectivamente a su hijo adolescente. El adolescente está caminando por una línea muy fina, cuyo lado equivocado podría ser fatal.

El telón de fondo de esta historia personal es la forma de vida de una gran ciudad, en donde la sociedad se enfrenta a las pandillas y al comportamiento ilegal. La historia está basada en hechos reales: en la sociedad, en los adolescentes que están tratando de comprender la dinámica de sus vidas, y en el mundo de las responsabilidades individuales de padres y adultos.

Mientras que los personajes principales son policías, ellos podrían ser cualquier adulto dedicado a cualquier profesión. Ellos eligen entrenar a los adolescentes a través de un esfuerzo organizado. Lo que hace a esta historia conmovedora es la descripción de todas las influencias a las que los adolescentes se enfrentan en las grandes ciudades, en este caso ilustradas a través de las decisiones tomadas por personajes de la historia. Los adultos se guían a través de principios del Estado de derecho. Ya que todos los elementos dramáticos en Takin’ It Back han sido extraídos de la vida real y son directos, el público no se sentirá manipulado. Por el contrario, el público, tanto adolescentes como adultos, podrán mirar al interior a vidas con las que se pueden relacionar. El público aprende lecciones a medida de que los personajes de la historia aprenden por qué los paradigmas tradicionales de la interacción humana siguen siendo verdaderos a través del tiempo.

En Takin’ It Back y Cheyenne Rising Sun, las historias contienen momentos de violencia, y escenas que son provocativas, sin embargo no están ahí gratuitamente. La credibilidad en las historias depende en aquello que es posible y esencialmente cierto.

Términos básicos a considerar para contar historias —cómo alcanzar los objetivos—

1. El personaje (el individuo) desarrollado para la historia, ya sea bueno o malo, es presentado al inicio.

2. Para el propósito de este seminario, el conflicto al cual el personaje se enfrenta trata de alguna manera la relación entre la sociedad y el Estado de derecho.

3. El aspecto final en una buena historia es la resolución alcanzada por las elecciones del personaje, que le fueron presentadas a través del conflicto.

Piense en éstas como las CCyR de la escritura dramática. En realidad, como el escritor desarrolla una idea en base a una experiencia, el escritor debería saber los resultados del conflicto de antemano.

Cuando se está construyendo una historia, el escritor deberá llevarnos más allá de una buena idea. El escritor debe de tener una premisa. Este es el soporte de una historia bien construida.

La premisa no tiene tanto la intención de ser artística u original como clara y directa en el establecimiento del núcleo dramático de la historia que se manifiesta causando un movimiento hacia su cumplimiento. La premisa trata de construir los cimientos que soportan los aspectos más visibles de la historia, los personajes y eventos, tal como las bases de un edificio soportan los aspectos más visibles de la estructura, sus paredes, techo, ventanas.

La premisa de Cheyenne Rising Sun: adaptarse al mundo cambiante lleva a la supervivencia y al crecimiento, por lo tanto, al futuro. La premisa de Takin’ It Back: aceptar a la vida como algo más allá del individuo permite la integración y el crecimiento del todo, sin devaluar el valor de cada parte.

Si un escritor tiene problemas para establecer la premisa, generalmente tendrá problemas para desarrollar y completar una historia satisfactoria. Ejemplos de premisas: A través de la perseverancia se alcanza lo inalcanzable, o la honestidad derrota la falsedad, o los celos destruyen al celoso y al objeto de su afecto. Los tres son ejemplos de una premisa en una historia. Y en cada uno sabemos el comienzo (el personaje), la acción o verbo (el conflicto) y el final (la resolución).

Se debe de obtener la premisa antes de intentar la secuencia que construye el argumento de la historia. Sin embargo, la premisa no debe ser confundida con el argumento. Y uno no pesa más que el otro. Una premisa sin un argumento bien desarrollado es sólo una idea.

Un argumento es la sucesión de acontecimientos con intencionalidad. Dichos acontecimientos deben tener una cierta lógica que los conecta, ya sea en una línea de tiempo, o en la manipulación del pasado, presente y futuro, como recurso para presentar una historia de una manera más interesante.

La película reciente titulada “Tsotsi” tiene un mensaje poderoso sobre el Estado de derecho en una sociedad. Incidentalmente ganó el Oscar® por ser la mejor película extranjera en el 2006. La película fue producida en Sudáfrica. Ultimadamente, es una historia sobre redención. Un joven, Tsotsi (esto significa matón), que claramente vive sin una pizca de moralidad o ética (personaje), se roba un coche después de matar a la dueña, una joven madre.

Dándose a la fuga en una carretera, Tsotsi descubre que no solamente se robo el carro, pero también, durante su acto ilegal, secuestró al bebé de la mujer. Al principio él abandona al bebé.

Pero un poco de humanidad se despierta en él, y se lleva al niño a su pocilga (conflicto). El conflicto que la audiencia siente es agudo, ya que no tenemos idea de lo que va a pasar con el infante.

Estando completamente mal preparado para cuidar al infante y viviendo en la pobreza, Tsotsi le exige ayuda a una madre joven que vive cerca. Su única manera de pedir ayuda es amenazando a la mujer con una pistola. Lo que experimenta en ese momento es algo que él nunca ha presenciado: el cuidado humano altruista por parte de otro ser humano. La joven le proporciona al bebé el sustento que le salva la vida. Sí, la joven madre siente la amenaza de la pistola, pero su humanidad y la civilidad superan, por mucho, su miedo. Durante el arco de la historia, la transformación de la violencia ilegal como una forma de vida, a la entrega del niño sano y al enfrentamiento de las consecuencias jurídicas por sus acciones, implica un inmenso crecimiento personal y redención para Tsotsi (resolución).

La película “Tsotsi” es un ejemplo excepcional de lo que el entretenimiento puede alcanzar a través del ejemplo positivo. A pesar de que se muestra mucha violencia en la historia, no lo hace de manera gratuita. La forma de vida sin ley es utilizada para establecer el mundo del personaje principal.

Los conflictos y las resoluciones presentadas a través de “Tsotsi” llevan a la audiencia a comprender lo que la vida sin una cultura de la legalidad le hace a una sociedad. El valor del choque de la vida plagada de crimen del protagonista es utilizado de manera efectiva para capturar la atención y crear una circunstancia de amenaza. Las lecciones aprendidas por Tsotsi son parte de la progresión de esta increíble historia en la que el lado bueno de la humanidad prevalece sobre el mal. Es una historia que trasciende el idioma, la cultura y las fronteras geográficas. Es una historia que es aplicable a cualquier ciudad en cualquier país.

La vida es actuada en un escenario. Puede ser al interior de las paredes de un domicilio, las calles de un barrio o la frontera entre dos países. La vida está constantemente sucediendo detrás de cada escena que se está reproduciendo en ese momento en tiempo real con la persona que está siendo enfocada. El equilibrio entre el entretenimiento y la edificación se puede alcanzar sin perder a un público que de pronto sienta que está siendo aleccionado. Sin embargo, el escritor debe sentir una pasión sobre la trama, y esto funciona mejor a través de la experiencia personal o de un conocimiento profundo del tema.

“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”
Mahatma Gandhi
The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1927

The International Day of Non-Violence is marked on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi,Mahatma is a sanskrit word for “Great Soul”, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence.

On 15 June 2007 the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence.

The wide and diverse co-sponsorship of the UN resolution reflects
the universal respect that Mahatma Gandhi commands and the enduring
relevance of his humane philosophy. In his own words, “Non-violence is
the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the
mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man”. His
“novel mode of mass mobilization and non-violent action” brought down
colonialism, strengthened the roots of popular sovereignty, of civil,
political and economic rights, and greatly influenced many a freedom
struggle and inspired leaders like Badshah Khan, Nelson Mandela, Martin
Luther King Jr. and many others.

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. Time Magazine named The Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, Dr. Martin Luthur King Jr., Ceasar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to non-violence. The Government of India awards the annual Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens.

In 1996, the Government of India introduced the Mahatma Gandhi series of currency notes in rupees 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 denomination. Today, all the currency notes in circulation in India contain a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1969, the United Kingdom issued a series of stamps commemorating the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The wide and diverse sponsorship is a reflection of the universal respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of the enduring relevance of his philosophy. Quoting the late leader’s own words, he said: “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man”.

While I was working on recent Name of the Day Alina, I stumbled across the German Annalena.  I don’t believe this is an official list, but you’ll find Annalena at #107.

With Anneliese and company garnering mentions in more and more baby name forums, I have to ask: Annalena, yea or nay?

The form of digital narrative as participatory, interactive, and multisensory, dates back to ancient times.  Storytelling through other media we are familiar with—television, radio, print, video—involves a limited number of senses and limited involvement.  Digital narratives impart a level of participation and interaction that we have not encountered in some time, and it is engaging us in fascinating new ways.  McLuhan states, “the new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of the global village.”  Digital storytelling engages  participation and involvement among people of very different cultures and backgrounds.

It seems we are naturally moving towards a dependence on the digital form.  We, as a culture, are favoring a more active form of entertainment, information sharing, reading, and storytelling.  We are active participants in these activities, instead of just experiencing them.  McLuhan asserted “the aspiration of our time for wholeness, empathy and depth of awareness is a natural adjunct of electrical technology.”  Because digital narrative creates interaction and involvement that is different from what we are used to, it is hard for us to fully embrace it.  However, there must have been a need for greater connection and interaction—or wholeness and depth of awareness—that served as motivation for these advancements.  Technology just evolved to fill that need we  had developed.

We are aware that technology is changing the way we interact, the way that we share our stories with others.  This new interaction moves us closer towards the concept of a “global village.”  Neither geography nor language serves as a barrier among us.  New technology enables storytelling to become more widespread and mutisensory—affecting us in more passionate and active ways.  McLuhan stated, “any technology gradually creates a totally new human environment” and “environments are not passive wrappings but active processes.”  It does feel as though a new environment is forming, and we are actively engaging in it through our day-to-day activities and interactions that seem to centered around these new, digital technologies.

Here is a video clip by the American TV channel ABC that carried out a social experiment to identify and analyze the causes of religion based discrimination against Muslim Americans by the non-Muslim American public. It exhibits a behavior which is a mix of regret-mixed-punishment, humanistic support and at times politically correct indifference.

Many people, especially Muslims, may take it as a surprise. The primary reason being that such images break-down the “American Dream” image that most of the immigrants and other aspirants embrace based on the pro-American media projection that does not provide a wholesome picture including potential discriminatory behavior from certain domestic social segments.

The questions that arise from this observation are multi-dimensional:

1. Why now? Why did not this realization exist earlier amongst the media and the Muslim minority/immigrants?

2. No more an ‘Eastern Phenomenon’! We all thought (or were made to think) that such social drawbacks were exclusive to the Eastern and essentially non-Western part of the world. Well guess what!

3. Does this mean polarization?! Or better yet getting real, tolerant and appreciative of the goodness that both the East and the West can bring together.

An argument based explanation to the aforementioned observations can be put under two broad-categories:

Interactive Diversity: Too Close for Comfort

The answer to the above questions is pretty much related to society’s increasing exposure to diversity and the globalization of media. Such discriminatory behavior is not exclusive to any single society of the world. It is but a human aspect that is amplified as diverse cultures get too close to ignore; mostly through circumstantial happenings. When the diverse social practices come in close a range  they trigger the previously dormant ‘diversity dynamics’. This essentially results in challenging, directly or indirectly, the lifestyle and philosophic approach of the host society.

Social history vouches that changing human behavioral attributes founded especially on religious beliefs are the most difficult to even engage with. Religion for both the practicing and non-practicing alike has been a ‘Untouchable & Unquestionable’ aspect of one’s private life. It is like a heavily guarded forbidden ‘treasure’ the inquiry of which only brings about a sense of vulnerability and fear of loss.

Media-Wise: Oh so THAT’s my Culture!

The other key catalyst has been the media that has brought about these diversity dynamics through amplified projection of the otherwise politically correct and very blurry social boundaries. The media earlier were isolated in the sense that either their broadcast was limited to a geographical territory of their origin or there was no real media competition in the satellite broadcasting scenario. Since lately the West dominated popular satellite media primarily lead by CNN and BBC has started to face considerable competition from Eastern satellite channels specifically from the middle east such as Al-Jazeera TV and the Asian/South Asian regions primarily comprising China, Pakistan & India. This proliferation of the media has amplified realization of the cultural & value-system differences that exist between the East and the West. These have further provided the Eastern representatives in the form of immigrants, workers and next generation a heightened sense of belonging to their roots and highlighted the contrasts with the host culture of the country of their residence. This form of ‘media advocacy’ motivates these immigrants to practice, project and share their root culture and religious beliefs more frequently and with much bolder visibility.

Huh! Huh? : I am one of them! Am I one of them?

This is exactly what’s been projected in the ABC social experiment video. The previously dormant Muslim practices and the now greater first-hand visibility of the root culture via Eastern (and specifically media of Muslim countries) media to the host country have suddenly created a certain level of ’strangeness’ amongst the people. What once seemed familiar has now taken several new dimensions to which the general public does not have the answers and thus do not feel ‘confident’ dealing with it. In the wake of religion based tension and armed conflicts with intertwined political interests involving both the East and the West; the public remains overburdened by negative news. The need is to design on ground public activism and media talk-shows that address all such dimensions, answer questions and show both sides of the story for the global community to achieve mutual understanding. Through this mutual understanding would then arise appreciation for the positive contributions of every culture to the ‘Global Culture’. As it is with human history we did succeed in coining the term ‘Global Village’ without preparing the diverse peoples for what was coming ahead. It’s now time for consolation and consolidation.

Is she a modern coinage?  A traditional diminutive able to stand on her own?  Or something else entirely?

Thanks to Laney McDonald for suggesting the elusive Alina as Name of the Day.

In past posts, readers have (mostly) agreed: despite their roots as short forms, Nina and Lena wear well independently, too.  If that’s the case, the three-syllable Alina ought to feel even more substantial.

Plenty of names lend themselves to Alina:

• Rarities covered here, like Evelina and Sumarlina;
• Popular picks like Angelina (#69 in 2008) as well as up-and-comers like Carolina (#355) and imports like Magdalena (#903).
• It’s a stretch, but virtually any name ending in -line, from Madeline (#56) and Caroline (#94) to Evangeline (#450) might adopt Alina, too.

In the midst of these choices, you’ll find Alina herself, ranked #245, as well as variant Alena at #686.  Depending on the guide, you’ll find both versions listed as nicknames for Adelina, Helena, Maddalena and more.

But there’s also a long list of similar choices that are current – and viewed by many as modern, even original.  Think of:

• Alaina - sometimes listed as a variant of Elena or Elaine;
• Alana – usually linked to the male Alan;
• Alyssa – now fading, she was once as popular as can be, while fairytale Alice languished.

And that’s without considering names like Allison, Alexis or yet another version of one of the above.

There are nearly as many possible meanings for Alina and company as there are origins.  (A few include Romanian for soothing; Germanic or Arabic for noble; Greek for light.)  On the one hand, if you’re looking for a name with a positive meaning, take your pick.  But if you hope to have a rock-solid explanation for your chosen name’s meaning?  Look elsewhere.

Given all of her possible origins, you’ll hear multiple pronunciations, too.

Most bearers of the name are Eastern European – a Ukrainian gymnast, a Romanian ballerina, a Russian violinist, a member of the Polish parliament.

I’m guessing, but I imagine that many Eastern European Alinas answer to Alinka or Alenka.  In the US, she’d probably be Ali – choose your spelling.

You can find the name in use globally and throughout history:

• Alina Fernández is the illegitimate daughter of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and an outspoken critic of her father’s regime – her memoir has been optioned for a movie;
• There was a seventh century Belgian saint named Alena;
• The Normans bestowed Aline as an independent given name, and brought her to England.  You’ll find Aline, Alina, Adelina, Adela and more in use through the fifteenth century;
• She’s currently popular in Germany – Melina, Celina, Helena and Annalena are all heard, too.

Does this make her pan-global, or just plain rootless?  That depends on your perspective.  If Alina appeals as a means to honor your Romanian roots  without choosing something decidedly Slavic, then she’s probably just international enough.  But if you’re looking for a name that is definitively Celtic or Arabic or Russian?  Alina isn’t quite the one.

Still, she’s a nice compromise between the antique and the modern – feminine but not frilly and current but not trendy.

Today’s post goes out with a Happy First Birthday to my daughter, Claire Caroline Wren.

Our Name of the Day was worn by Clio’s great-great-grandmother: Chiara.

I don’t know much about Chiara Nobile, but I do know that the name she was given in Naples didn’t transition well to New York.  At Ellis Island, the clerk called her Katie.  In official records, she is sometimes Chiara, and sometimes Chiarina, a diminutive form.

As Italian families often do, Chiara’s name was handed down to many of her American descendants.  They became Claire, Carina and eventually Clarina.  While honoring family mattered, and my forebearers fearlessly bestowed heirlooms like Filomena and Francesco, every one of my extended seems to have agreed on one thing: Chiara just plain didn’t translate.

They weren’t alone.  Despite plenty of immigrants who arrived with the name, Chiara has never charted in the US Top 1000.  Derived from the Latin clarus, she means clear or bright.  The thirteenth century noblewoman Chiara Offreduccio is remembered to history as Saint Clare of Assissi – St. Francis’ associate and the founder of the Order of the Poor Ladies, better known as the Poor Clares.

Plenty of related names have fared well:

• At #62 in 2008, the gently French Claire is at her highest point of popularity, though she easily qualifies as a classic;
• The austere Clare charts in the Girls’ Top 1000 most years.  Until the 1940s, Clare also regularly charted on the boys’ side;
• Clara was a Top 10 pick in the nineteenth century and a Top 100 mainstay right through Clara Bow’s reign as the It Girl.

But none of these sound anything like Chiara.  Pronounced with three syllables, kee AR uh is undeniably pretty.  Similar names have actually done quite well in recent years:

• Kiara appears to be a phoentic variant.  But her first appearance in the US Top 1000 was 1988 – the same year that Disney’s sequel to their smash hit The Lion King was released.  This time, Simba’s daughter is the hero of the tale, and her name?  Kiara, of course.  After peaking at #78 in 1999, she’s fallen to #241 as of last year;
• Kyara appears to be an ever more creative take on Kiara;
• Here’s where it gets fuzzy – Ciara might also be a simplified spelling of Chiara.  Or a riff on Kiara.  Or she could be related to the Gaelic masculine name Ciar – think Ciarán or Kieran, as well as the seventh century Saint Cera.  Or Saint Ciera.  Or one of several other spelling variants.  She’s usually given a two syllable pronunciation – KEER uh;
• There’s also Keara, Kira, Ceara, Kierra and more – though it is possible to link some of those variants to other names.  (Kira, for example, is often listed as a feminine version of Cyrus.)

And that’s  her drawback.  Style-wise, she fits in seamlessly with Isabella and Alexandra.  But she’s so very unusual that a Chiara born in 2009 might find herself answering to she AHR ah, CHEE rah and other manglings.

But if you can overlook that, Chiara could be an intriguing import for those seeking something unexpected.