Everyone is blogging – from John Snow to the local gossip – conversation is online and after you sieve through the wades of angry rants, there is some useful stuff about.

As a student being made to blog I have actually come to quite enjoy it and in a recent lecture with Adam Tinworth I realised how a blog can potentially make you a lot of money.  I have compiled 10 tips for successful blogging to ensure you rake in the viewers and possibly the cash…

This video from a London Bloggers Meetup gives some helpful pointers to get you on the right track:

1 – Keep it regular. To have a popular blog that people will want to read you should post about four times a week.

Adam, head of Read Business Information (RBI),  the largest Business to Business publisher, recommends you are:

• Inquisitive
• Communicative
• Honest
• Enthusiastic
• Social
• Informed

2 – Start talking. You have to put work into your blog if you want to get something back from it. Adam’s blog, One Man and His Blog, has gained a lot of traffic because he is fully involved with the online discussion. Comment on other blogs, especially those of a similar subject to your own and respond when people comment on yours.

3 – Find a niche and cultivate it. The journalism world is highly competitive and to stick out you need to be different. By finding a specialist subject that you are also interested in you are proving you have something unique to offer to the blogosphere. Whether it is unusual food, dress making, cricket, or independent music - find a topic, nurture it and you will be rewarded.

6 – Post a wide range of content, in different formats.  Big Lorry Blog and Flight Blogger are examples of popular blogs that have made money through providing their readers with a range of stories, videos and audio within their niche specialities.

7 – Adam’s main ingredients for a good blog:

• links
• photos
• video
• discussion
• opinion

A blog should be varied and engaging with all these points included to make it visually pleasing and interesting to a reader.

8 – Don’t be too opinionated. The view that blogs are: “rants written in bedrooms by losers” can be seen everywhere. The point of a blog is to talk about something and raise questions on the subject  – not rant about how much you hate it.

9 – Traffic = money in the blogging world so once you have a well-visited site – look into advertising to make some money.

10 – Tag your posts with searchable topics and try linking to other sites. A group debate is a good way to increase traffic to your sight.

Still looking for inspiration? Check out the Independent’s pick of 10 innovative and exciting new blogs here.

Das hat jetzt zwar nur am Rande mit Fortuna Köln zu tun und liegt auch schon ein paar Tage zurück. Aber dennoch finde ich diesen Artikel durchaus lesens- und empfehlenswert. In einem sehr ausführlichen Interview mit der britischen Tageszeitung “The Independent” äußert sich der Kapitän der deutschen Nationalmannschaft hauptsächlich über den Freitod Robert Enkes, spricht aber auch über andere Dinge. Ich für meinen Teil lese sehr gerne solche Berichte, die einem mal einen anderen Blickwinkel erlauben. In dem Zusammenhang seien insbesondere die Texte ans Herz gelegt, die Raphael Honigstein für den Guardian über die Bundesliga schreibt. Jedes Mal eine Freude.

Yukimi Nagano, Little Dragon, SF 2009

Thank you Little Dragon for coming back to the Bay.   Finally have the photos up of their greatness here:

LITTLE DRAGON SF

Fat Freddy's Drop, SF 2009

can’t get enough
all smiles
cheese

keep tuned…

Stewart Lee.

Well, not with in the truest sense, of course – but had the best night out at Peterborough’s Key Theatre last night. Intelligent, passionate, considered and very, very funny comedy. AND, he can sing very nicely too.

I don’t know if there are any tickets left for his  Milder Comedian tour, but it’s really worth checking out if he’s near you. Although, as Tony Law his warm-up guy pointed out, it does mean all the liberals in town will be in one place when Stew’s in town – leaving everybody else to judge each other and no one to buy The Independent or The Guardian… a small price to pay for a night of fabulous comedy.

Hopefully the Peterborough audience’s idiosyncracies (who knew cardboard would be so funny?) won’t put him off coming back soon…

In a feature in today’s Independent the paper looked at how companies are increasingly employing (or having to) the use of modern media to deal with complaints about their service and therefore potentially harming their corporate image. The Independent Online calls it, “Is big business starting to get Twitter?”, a reference to getting fitter or better at dealing with customer issues. In the edition firms like Glasses Direct, Kelloggs and Bose come out of it fairly well through using a team to scan Twitter to reply to unfavorable comments and trying to ‘nip them in the bud’ so to speak, trying to listen to and solve the problems. BT actually have a BT Care team who reply to online tweets about such raised mistakes and others are fast following suit.

So what should we, the customer, make of all this? Simply that the big guys have had to enter the preserve of the ‘little guys’ to fend off this fair form of attack. The only reason they are there is because we are in our millions making everyone else know what awful service they give and naming and shaming at the same time. It’s a fair and free speech so they have had to join the debate. People power just got more powerful!

Fight Back Tip: Don’t ever think that a simple comment would make no difference. It all depends how many people read, view and empathise with it. Modern platforms like Twitter and Facebook allow one person to share grievances with millions of others. So don’t be afraid to log on and spout off – plenty will be listening and be agreeing!!

It has been a while since i last updated but i have some more free time now and intend on building up a bigger profile online, where i will be able to provide some study material and updates on local events happening in Oxford.

First of all i want to give students some guidance on where to get important material to study with:

The best place to get frequent study material is by reading the language everyday, this is a good way to get an introduction to new Vocabulary and also some structure. 

My first recommendation is to use the News… this is excellent for many reason as you are not only kept up to date but also able to, with some patience, learn lots of new and relevant vocabulary. It is also an excellent way in which you can develop a topical vocabulary which can also improve your conversational level.

There are a variety of different newspapers in the UK and most have a different level of English, here is a brief summary of the levels that you should expect from the major papers.

The easiest to read of the UK newspapers are the “Tabloids” this essentially means newspapers that are not totally focused on reporting serious journalism and provide much lighter reading..

• Daily Star
• The Daily Mirror – this is a socialist, Pro Labour newspaper.
• The Daily Sport - this is a paper with a bad reputation as not providing any form of serious journalism.
•  The Sun – This is one of the most popular newspapers in the UK

These newspapers also do release a Sunday Paper that is a bit more in-depth and provides a much bigger read, if you are going to buy one a week i would recommend the Sunday papers.

There are also the Mid Market newspapers that have a slightly higher level of English:

• Daily Express
• Daily Mail

 These are both politically biased to the Conservative party.

There are also some compact newspapers that are very much the best read in terms of serious journalism and will provide a much higher level of vocabulary.

• The Times
• The Independent
• The Guardian

You also have the broad sheets that are essentially the upper class newspapers that are dedicated to a high level of language and very focused and serious style of Journalism.

• The Daily telegraph
• The Financial Times

As an overview that is how the Newspapers work within the UK i will also advise that you look into the sunday newspapers, Importantly The Sunday Times. This is a large newspaper with a variety of different articles and separate papers and magazines covering a large area of subjects.

Other resources that may be of Interest when looking to access more vocabulary is to look into the use of blogs, (im guessing you know what these are if you are here) and find different topics in which to read about,

good ideas would be to look into Language learning blogs or other free language services.

Hope this was Helpful

Regards
Mark

Comment at end

23rd November, 2009

John Rentoul asks: “The key question – is Blair a war criminal?” – NO! (Answer 180)

Rentoul: “Is it really necessary to explain the difference between a war crime and something that is, in someone’s opinion, contrary to international law? War crimes include genocide, and no sensible person accuses Blair of that, and waging a war of aggression, which is what is usually meant by the extreme anti-war faction in this case (although the aftertaste of genocide often seems to be deliberate). How anyone can compare the German invasion of Poland with the invasion of Iraq in order to enforce United Nations resolutions is beyond me.”

Journalist and Blair biographer John Rentoul. He is almost a lone voice at 'The Independent' in insisting that no-one, not even Tony Blair, is guilty of anything until so proven.

Ahhh, but they CAN, John, THEY can. These “sensible” persons can accuse Mr Blair of anything they like, because HE is the devil incarnate, don’t you know?  This “spawn of Satan” tried to fool us for years as to his good intentions by actually performing one or two or three and more GOOD acts. Only, you understand, in order to get away with killing “hundreds of thousands”, an urge which – don’t you know(?) – got him out of bed in his prime ministerial mornings.

Being ‘vicious’ is required of today’s press, of course. You must know that too, John.  It’s the only way to rouse the rabble. And now that the Iraq Inquiry is seriously upon us and such as the Mail’s embittered Peter Oborne gloat that Mr Blair is unprotected diplomatically by dint of not being the EU president, the bitter think it is time to strike while the iron’s hot.  HE is fair game. So fair and tasty a meal would he make that even Sir John Chilcot has been forced to defend his Inquiry yet again from the scurrilous innuendo – NO, accusation -  of its being a ‘whitewash’. This is an attack on Sir John’s integrity and that of his committee. He knows we will hear more of this as the Inquiry proceeds, as do we all, courtesy of the press and their various agendas.

DON’T BULLY SIR JOHN

Saying “we are determined to write the story fully and frankly”, Sir John responds to a question from a BBC  interviewer as to whether or not the lawyer-less committee has “forensic skills”.  Sir John says this question shows there is  a real misconception as to the task of the Inquiry. “This isn’t a trial. It’s not a court proceeding. So it doesn’t call for the forensic skills of the sort you describe.”

Say it again Sir John! And again, and again, and again. Watch video here

BLAIR IN COURT? BUT OF COURSE!

Since this kind of confused message from the press is guaranteed to continue, my immediate concern is that Sir John should NOT be bullied into coming down harder than he should in order to prove his impartiality credentials regarding a political decision (thus flawed, as is their wont) to the schoolmasterly crowd of anti-Blair creatures. The chairman of the Iraq Inquiry must ensure that he does NOT succumb to the agenda’d behaviour of the righteous, riotous mob. You only need to read some of the comments from the ALREADY DECIDED here to see what a mountain Mr Blair has to climb to restore his good name. For people like this NOTHING is too harsh a fate for Tony Blair. Their muddying of the Inquiry’s waters is intended to make self-fulfilling that Blair is called to legal account in a court of law – “s’inetivitable, init, mate!?”

Keep reminding them, SirJohn – “this (Inquiry) is NOT a trial, and nobody is on trial”

Again today Sir John has had to remind people that he does not need to provide barristers at this “not a trial”. It is disgraceful that these people continue to attempt to make this Tony Blair’s TRIAL. Many of us knew they would. I started compiling my little list some months ago, to highlight this distasteful non-legally admissible or principled behaviour

For let us not be fooled – these people are NOT all necessarily or even simply against the Iraq war. They are using what they see as public unease over the invasion as a weapon with which to literally strike down the previous prime minister. Imprisoning for the rest of his life would be, in many of their “peace-and loving” eyes, too good for him. If THEY and their roused rabble could get their dirty hands on him, there’d be nothing left to lock up. I challenge the rabble to provide us with a list of all the good works THEY did for the people of Iraq in the 12 year period when Saddam was ignoring UN resolutions, and killing his own people.  I imagine the list would be short … or blank.

(See Iraq Inquiry website)

RESUSCITATE LIBEL LAWS SO THAT THEY ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING

It cannot be right in ANY country which calls itself a civilised liberal democracy that we go for the throat of a politician over a political decision with which we don’t agree. This is NOT democracy. Democracy is where we vote them out, not string ‘em up. Democracy is what we saw in action in 2005, over two years after the Iraq invasion when all the lies and illegal arguments had already been aired ad nauseum. In case you ‘ve forgotten, we voted back into power the “illegal … liars”.

I know it will make no difference to the arguments right now over the Iraq invasion, but I would urge any government or opposition party worth its salt to seriously look again at libel laws in this country, seriously undermined in recent years by civil and human righters. It cannot be right and IT IS NOT RIGHT that for the sake of “freedom” of speech and freedom of the press the mob are incited in this way.

No-one … and that includes TONY BLAIR … no-one is any kind of criminal until proven to be so. And even then, the law takes its course … lawfully.

Are we waiting until summary justice is dispensed by the know-it-all rent-a-mob before we change the law, as so often happens in this reactive world? (See Frears call for Blair’s head on a “spear”.)

With the Inquiry about to get into full swing tomorrow there is and will be widespread media coverage. Tonight on ITV news Anthony Scrivener QC, who criticised Blair in 2005 for wanting to introduce laws against incitement to violence, see here, said that anyone who thought Tony Blair would get his comeuppance from this Inquiry would be seriously disappointed. It is clear that Scrivener and his ilk will keep trying, if only by making this kind of statement of evident outcome, thus seeking to undermine the whole Inquiry process.

On a lighter note, well, maybe for some …

Mr Rentoul – ARE YOU RISKING YOUR OWN JOB BY CONTINUING TO SUPPORT BLAIR?

I’m beginning to wonder how long John Rentoul can hold onto his scribbling job at The Indy. Sorry, John, I hope it’s a long time, but you may be stepping on a few sensitive toes with your excellent article below. After all, it was the Independent on Sunday wot won it” (the Stop Blair for EU Presidency campaign) don’t you know? Nothing to do with internal politicking from a certain Ms Merkel & Mr Sarkozy!

The Indy really needs to get out a bit more. This paper has actually NO influence on what happens to Mr Blair over Iraq, Europe or anything else. They are irrelevant. The sooner they understand that the better.

You, on the other hand, Mr Rentoul, are the only writer worth reading at that excuse for “independent” thinking. Long may they allow it to be so. Otherwise you may be joining the blogging ranks of those who do it for nothing. Nothing but the pursuit of  balance. A balance which says, as you have pointed out below, and that I have done so here on many occasions that the man who is lauded as a hero in many parts of the word for saving people from tyranny should never, EVER be carelessly described as a “war criminal”.

INTENT?

We all know that thousands died following the Iraq invasion. We also know that many if not most of those were killed by their own people and imported insurgents. So, is Tony Blair to blame for ALL of these deaths? Is he ALONE responsible? Clearly not.  His intention was never genocide in the ‘war crimes’ meaning, quite the opposite.

I used the word NEVER above in relation to describing the former PM as a war criminal because even in the unlikely event that Blair is found to have “misspoken” in his presentation of intelligence over WMDs or plans for an Iraq invasion, none of his intention was in order to kill thousands of people. Events, dear boy, and unintended consequences.

These are not weasel words. Quite the opposite.  The fact of INTENT is central to any charges of war crimes.

Tony Blair’s accusers need to learn that lesson and learn it fast.

I realise that this kind of statement of FACT will be dismissed as laughable by those who see Bair as Hitler/Mugabe/Karadzic (allegedly.) That does not mean that this statement is untrue.

In any charges of “war crimes” intent must be proved to have been uppermost in the mind of the accused.

“Disappointing to see that my own newspaper, The Independent on Sunday, asks number 180 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No, in the form of the headline on Oliver Miles’s shabby article previewing the Chilcot inquiry into Iraq, which starts on Tuesday.

For all the time that I have disagreed with the editorial policy of the Independent titles – that is, since late 2002, when it became clear that Simon Kelner, then the editor of The Independent, was opposed to military action in Iraq under any circumstances – I have continued to argue with my colleagues that they should avoid the language of “lies” and “war crimes” in characterising those with whom they disagree.”  (Read all of Rentoul’s article here )

An excellent and moving comment at Rentoul’s article. Read to the end, please:

“I hold the same view of John, who seems to be one of the few people left in Britain with a certain kind of sense of justice.
In order not to devalue the meaning of war crimes and let real evil dictators get away with their appalling crimes, once and for all must be established what war crimes are. They are attacks grounded on the arbitrariness of power either to eliminate enemies or menacing ethnic or religious minorities.
What Tony Blair did was to join a multinational force ( more than 20-30 countries) in an intervention that was later sanctioned by the UN, unlike Kosovo and the 1998 strikes in Iraq. Blair himself painstakingly tried to secure a second UN resolution which was denied by the personally motivated interests of France and Germany. Many secret services held the view that Saddam was hiding weapons of mass destruction and this was not something created by Blair but by the duplicitous behavior of the Iraqi dictator. Does all this amount to war crimes ? Of course not. This is the route chosen by a principled politician in order to come to grips with a controversial moral issue like the necessity of commencing a military action.
Some may argue that he misled the Parliament in the run-up to the war, but he said to the British Parliament what he then knew about the WMD. Some may argue that Britain was not equipped for the war,and this very fact leads me to the bitter conclusion that Britain has turned from a world power into a useless country, never ready for anything, whether is the Iraq WAr, the Afghan WAR or the Football World Cup, unless it is trained by an Italian couch.
Some may argue that the Iraq war was a catastrophe, but we should objectively draws the conclusion that, after some setbacks, Iraq is now a better country than it previously was under Saddam. It’s very sad that many soldier died, and among them my beloved boyfriend, a young, energetic American boy, but we were there to fight someone who really was a war criminal, just to bear in mind who really are war criminals in this world with a distorted vision of what it is good and what it is bad.”

1. Leaked papers  – prior to the appearance of army chiefs at the Inquiry from, wait for it, the leaker of leaks -  The Telegraph.

2. “IT HAS BEEN EVIDENT FOR YEARS” … (OH NO IT HASN’T). Even the Irish Independent is sure that it knows ALL the facts – “it has been evident for years that Tony Blair misled the public on Iraq.” Oh no it hasn’t! Only to those who have pre-decided, generally Independent readers and Mail Tories.

3. Bruce Anderson at The Independent (AGAIN): “Iraq is inseparable from the Personality of Tony Blair” – So no fault being laid there then, Mr Anderson!?!?

4. Harry’s Place – Blair is NOT comparable to Kurt Waldheim -  Highlighting the clearly racist and anti-Jewish article by Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya.  Miles’s bias against the Jews passes almost unnoticed in its lack of complaint from the supposedly anti-racism Left. Simply, we can assume, because Oliver’s general attack is on the hate-figure of the Left, who happens to have been also the saviour of The Left, putting them in power for 12 years so far! What an odd world of odd characters.

5. Clare Short, former minister under Blair, resigned over Iraq – eventually – says Blair wont be hanged, drawn and quartered, or referred to The Hague.  At least she recognises the aims of her allies:

“I don’t think it will satisfy people who are hoping to hang, draw and quarter Tony Blair, or refer him to the International Court — that’s not going to happen,” said Clare Short, an ex-Cabinet minister who quit in protest two months after the invasion. She will also be testifying before the inquiry.

6. Royal Military Police website refers to the ‘lack of equipment’ of soldiers at the initial invasion on March 2003. Clearly a hanging offence.

7. Melanie Reid at The Times says we don’t trust politicians anyway, and then tells us why we shouldn’t. Give me strength! A dose of good old-fashioned anarchy, dictatorship or perhaps demagoguery would shut her up. Oh, sorry, forgot … that’s what we had with Blair, is it not? ‘NOT’ being the answer you are searching for, Ms Reid.

8. Times report, by Peter Riddell – “Tough deadline” Excerpt:

“The 15-strong secretariat has been sorting a mountain of files and e-mail records.

From tomorrow and for five weeks, the committee will hear from diplomats, arms control experts, civil servants and generals to establish what happened, initially in the run-up to the war.

Tony Blair and other politicians will give evidence after Christmas, before there is a long pause for the general election.

The key early witnesses will be Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was then Britain’s Ambassador to the United Nations, and Sir David Manning, Mr Blair’s foreign policy adviser from 2001 until 2003 and then Ambassador in Washington.

Sir John Scarlett, the recently retired head of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, will give public evidence from his time chairing the Joint Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2004, as will Sir John Sawers, the new head of MI6, who was closely involved in several capacities.

However, it is not yet certain on what basis Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6 during the run-up to the war, will give evidence. He is criticised widely within the intelligence world for providing unreliable intelligence directly to Mr Blair that had not been corroborated or checked in the correct way.”

The Little Bloggers get it back to front, as usual:

1. A Letter from a brain-dead Tory – HAH! Has anyone reminded this crowd that their party would have done exactly the same as Blair, AND voted for it anyway? Nincom-bloody-poops!

2. Lizzie Cocker, typical anti-Blair dullard, misspells and mis-portrays Blair, at her  “Impeach Blair the warmongerer” [sic] rant. As with SO much the little bloggers get it arse-backwards. This picture, for instance, has actually been reversed in comparison to the original. A little like the facts over Iraq and Tony Blair himself? Possibly, just probably. The original picture appears below this one.

The dullards at The Morning Star have saved this picture as "Impeach shark of Blair". How fair. How balanced. How judgemental. He is also described as "the warmongerer". It'd help their arguments if they could write or even use English properly. They're arse backwards in everything, as shown below.

Here is the original photograph. This kind of misrepresentation highlights the difficulties some have with seeing the TRUE facts through their careless, biased eyes.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks after he addressing delegates attending the Sierra Leone Trade and Investment Forum on 'Why I am supporting Sierra Leone', in London Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. Blair is believed to be one of the candidates for the position of the first full-time President of the European Union, whose appointment will be decided by EU leaders at a dinner in Brussels, Thursday Nov. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

3. Talking about LYING through pictures, The Mirror is STILL lying with the use of this picture here.  Named and shown at their site as Tony_Blair_visits_gaza_pic_Getty_877785464 it is WRONG.

LYING, in other words.

Shown at the digraceful LYING Mirror as - "Tony_Blair_visits_gaza_pic_Getty_877785464" this was actually taken in Sderot, Israel, NOT Gaza. Not helpful to remind people that Gaza and Hamas too can attack innocent people. Not part of the message from this disgraceful rag.

This picture was  NOT taken in Gaza, and it is NOT the weaponry fired from Israel into Gaza. Quite the opposite. It was taken in Sderot, Israel, and is of weapons used from Gaza to attack Israel. Just thought Id keep the record straight AGAIN as I did in June – for the slow of learning. I expect the Mirror to continue to retell this lie until challenged by Mr Blair’s Office. Even then, this scum rag will NOT apologise, unless forced to do so by threats of legal action.

GO FOR IT, Mr Blair. Take them for every penny. A picture paints a thousand words.

OH NO, IT WASN’T …

1. Keeping the EU Presidency from Blair – “It was the Independent on Sunday wot won it” – Oh, no it wasn’t! See here for the TRUE political assassin of our former PM.

2. Another Independent ‘analyst’, Jane Merrick at says “Lady Ashton … at least she’s not Tony”. Amazing nonsense.

3. BRING BACK TONY says Blair Foundation Blogspot. Well, that’s what some of us are about, true. But, even if free and able to return, do you think he’d be vaguely interested? Nope, me neither. Wonder why?  Clue – nothing to do with Iraq.

4. ‘Shrewd and shabby’ considered better than statesman Blair. Links to some opinions. More here from other EU countries.

5. The Wolf of appeasement. Excerpt: “President George W. Bush’s War on Terror was one of the most successful wars in the long history of war: more land was taken in less time, with the lowest loss of life. This result was due to Mr. Bush allowing the troops to destroy the enemy swiftly. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was over in a few months; it is the occupation that has lasted for years, which is to be expected. The occupation of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, likewise, took years.  Mr. Obama is more interested in protecting his image than saving the lives of our brave men and women who face death. The best way to get the troops out of Afghanistan is to trust Gen. McChrystal and comply with his recommendation. Those men are risking their lives, the least Mr. Obama can do is risk is his reputation. “

6. Not sure how much to make of this at The Guardian. Hugh Muir says that Peter Brierley, the father of a dead soldier, and his “blood on your hands” accusation to Tony Blair at the Guildhall Memorial event in October put Merkel and Sarkozy off Mr Blair for EU president. Well, it’s always possible, although I think unlikely. They probably decided regardless of that occasion. There were other Franco/German agendas at foot. But if it was largely or even partly due to this accusation, which is not the first time it has been made, perhaps we can thank Mr Brierley for Herman Van Who, and for setting back Britain and Europe’s relationship for years. Thank you for this great legacy in memory of your son, Mr Brierley. I’m sure he’d be delighted.  [See here to understand Brierley's links to the SWP, who support "defeating British and American troops". With 'friends' like these...]

We are in the throes of Arab hip-hop’s most significant contributions to the larger world hip-hop massive (Diaspora). Arab hip-hop crews the world over are feelin’ it. Like sharks attracted to blood, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, and (fill-in-the-blank) Arab MC’s are schoolin’ up to take a bite out of the Arabic hip-hop phenomenon. Lebanese-Syrian MC Eslam Jawaad is one of the leaders of this new school.

By JACKSON ALLERS

The Album Cover: Eslam Jawaad with a couple of Siberian mammoth tusks pointing him in the right direction...an errant mafia deal with a pair of mammoth tusks helped turn all his attention to the hip-hop music hustle. © Eslmaphobic

BEIRUT/LONDON -  Eslam Jawaad (real name Wissam Khodur), the 32-year old ex-Lebanese mafia affiliate and father of three isn’t some fresh-faced, knuckleheaded-hobby-rapper talking about what it means to “stay true to the hip-hop game” while barely scrapping by eating $2 dollar slices of pizza (or manaeesh as it were) and begging for metro fare – all the while espousing the tenets of the “revolution.”

“If you want to do this rap thing out of pure the love for the (hip-hop recording) game. Then do it and I’ll support you all the way,” he tells me in a phone call from his home in London – where he’s been based since late 2003.

“I’m not doing it out of the pure love for the game anymore. I’m no longer a young buck. And I’ve been in the game for so long that this is all I know how to do. If I have to raise my family and still be a revolutionary, I need money. Simple as.” The man has a family to feed.

Nearly 4-years in the making, Eslam’s debut album ‘Mammoth Tusk’ hit stores in this summer in the UK (no stats on album sales at print time).

Pairing down some 80-recorded tracks to 15, ‘Mammoth Tusk’ reads like a who’s who of rap royalty, in part because of his affiliation to Wu-Tang Clan [legendary NY-based hip-hop group] family member – the Dutch-Moroccan rapper/producer and manager Cilvaringz, who Eslam hooked up with in 2003 after Cilvaringz heard his demo in the UK.

Along with Cilvaringz, the Wu Tang Clan’s RZA [the Wu Tang Clan's mastermind] lends production help on the track ‘So Real’ featuring Palestinian R&B singer/MC Shadia Mansour (also out of the UK).

Original Native Tongues (a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists) member, De La Soul (left) join Eslam on a classic hip hop track ‘Rewind DJ,’ and in a skit on the track ‘It wasn’t me…’, US-based white-boy rapper Eminem’s radio DJs Lord Sear and Rude Jude of Sirius/Shade45 satellite radio jokingly accused Eslam of blowing up the World Trade’s on 9-11 during a live interview.

But the title song (and album namesake), ‘The Mammoth Tusk’ produced by Dr. Dre’s right hand man Focus, is the track that provides the most fodder for gossip.

“The track tells the tale of a failed business deal between the Syrian and Lebanese mobs over a Siberian mammoth tusk.”

“I was expecting to make a lot of money from the deal ($1.6 million), and when that money didn’t come through, it made me realize that the (mob) life wasn’t for me…I wasn’t willing to go all the way with the shit.”

Lucky for Arab hip-hop heads that the old-guard Lebanese mobsters weren’t prepared to let some young upstart cash in on such payola.

MENASSAT caught up with Eslam in May, only a month after recording sessions with Damon Albarn, frontman for Blur and the virtual group Gorillaz. [Albarn also lends his production skills to 'Mammoth Tusk' on the track 'Alarm Chord' which has that eerie Gorillaz hallmark sound all over it.]

Eslam Jawaad (left) during a show with the Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) fronted group “The Good, the Bad & the Queen” – which features musical legends – Tony Allen (pictured lower left), Fela Kuti’s musical director and the leader and drummer of the Africa 70′; Paul Simonon, bassist from The Clash (pictured, right), and Simon Tong from the Verve on guitar.

—-

MENASSAT: Let’s talk about ‘Mammoth Tusk.’ You’re getting much press for this story that led to the naming of this album.

ESLAM JAWAAD: “Well. Where do I begin? It’s a story from when I was working with the Lebanese mob. As you can tell, it involves the sale of a Siberian mammoth tusk that the Russian mob sold to a businessman in Dubai.”

“He was looking to sell it to a Syrian group that approached me to see if I could hustle it off to the Lebanese mob.”

“I eventually got cut out of the deal which took me a few months to set up. My mistake was that I tried to make the deal go down in Lebanon when I should’ve let it go down in Syria.”

“The bottom line is that these guys were gangsters and they were not about to let some kid walk away with like $1.6 million.”

MENASSAT: An article in The Independent (“Preaching to the Unconverted” March, 27) suggests it was this botched deal that convinced you to move to the UK to do your music full-time. Is that accurate? Where was the music when you were working with the mob?

EJ: “My music was there all along. It predated any involvement with the mob. I think my involvement in the mob came from my involvement with music. It’s not the other way around, but the Independent article seems to suggest the opposite – that the mob thing didn’t work out so I turned to music instead.”

“I think the type of music that I was listening to encouraged my fascination with mob culture. It was the mid-90s and it was like everybody was listening and romanticizing mob culture.”

“Culture of the Godfather and Scarface. Everybody loved them, you know what I mean? Youth culture and music then, it developed around mob affiliating or wanting to be mob affiliated.”

“I just really ‘was’ mob affiliated.”

Eslam Jawaad’s video from his single ‘Pivot Widdot’ featuring the Lebanese-based female MC Malikah

MENASSAT: You’re representing the Arab hip-hop Diaspora. Why the UK and not Lebanon?

EJ: “Very simply, when I was in the Beirut at the time, the industry was showing no love to what we were doing.”

“Despite my hustling for 3 years out of university trying to do the rap thing in Lebanon, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I had a couple of contacts in the UK and decided to try my hand at it.”

“I was lucky enough to have met UK acts (Asian Dub Foundation, Visionary Underground and UK Apache) who liked what I was doing, and supported me early on in my move.”

“And it continued when I met guys like Cilvaringz, and Damon (Albarn).”

MENASSAT: So there were barriers in Lebanon?

EJ: “With Lebanon specifically, I think it’s a lot more exclusive that other Arab countries.”

“If you lived abroad somehow you’re considered cooler than the folks trying to do it locally.  Sadly a lot of the homegrown kids propped up the idea.”

MENASSAT: But what do you think when young rappers play the hater role – talking trash about those making a living at hip-hop as opposed to those who are “doing it for the love of the game?”

EJ: “I say get off your fucking high-horse already. I don’t care how YOU do it!”

“If you can make money by yelling ‘Fuck the government!’ or ‘Sell drugs’ – then I say do it! What matters is what you’re doing in your life. I don’t care what you’re doing as long as you have good quality.”

“I for one have never sold out the message, I just present it in a commercial way. But the message is inherent in my album. Still, it ain’t the hardcore presentation I used to have.”

“Now I package my singles with more of the club vibe in mind. There’s no rules! Anyway! Who the hell says you’re a ‘real hip-hop artist’ if you do this or that?”

“I can guarantee any artist that is listened to, respected, loved, etc – no matter how hard core or revolutionary – they all make money. That’s how you get heard!”

“Take (New York City/New Jersey-based rapper) Immortal Technique for example. He’s helping with hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is feeding something like 20,000 kids in Africa.”

“Good on him! That’s what you gotta do, make money so you can do that!”

“Take Ziad Rahbani (son to legendary Lebanese diva Fairouz). He’s all about the message – all about the Arab cause. But how intelligent is his presentation? He’s not goin’ out wildin’ and saying ‘Fuck the government!’ But he IS saying that, if you’re listening. AND he’s making money.”

MENASSAT: Will there be that breakout pan-Arab hip-hop album that will be listened to throughout the Arab world?

EJ: “Currently there’s two movements, which go hand and hand really. There’s the ARAP movement (started in 2004) that I think was the first pan-Arab, multi-national hip-hop movement representing Arab hip-hop specifically because it consisted of Moroccans, Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians. (Salah Edin, Palestine, Cilvaringz, Eslam Jawaad, and Mohalim)

Now there’s the Arab League with a lot of people crossing over between the two groups. They are also pan-Arab, and have recently put out a track. [MC.Amin (Egypt), Arabian Knightz (Egypt), Wighit Nazar, The PharoZ, Malikah (Lebanon), Shadia Mansour (Palestine/UK), www.fredwreck.com/ ">Fredwreck (Palestine/USA), Solo Ltd.]

(NOTE: Eslam is affiliated with both groups, but primarily reps it for 3rap)

“But Salah Edin (pictured © Laith Majali), the Dutch-Moroccan MC has just released his third album (produced by Cilvaringz and released on Wu Tang Clan International label and distributed by Universal Music).”

“I think it’s the first proper Arab hip-hop album. From beginning to end – the production, musically. I mean, the ideas and the little sounds that you add here and there. It’s just professionally at the best quality you can get, and the message is on point.”

“It’s up there with all of the top American hip-hop you can think of. You know what I mean?”

“His flow on top of that. My only observation is that Salah’s accent is Moroccan and that limits his Arab audience. But I’ve spoken about this to him.”

MENASSAT: You’ve listened to your album a million times, so I ask, what are your stand out tracks on ‘Mammoth Tusk?’

EJ: Phonetically, I love ‘Criminuhl.’ I also really love ‘Babba’s Shotgun’ (about resisting the French colonial police back in his grandfather’s days as a Lebanese revolutionary.)

Then there’s ‘Heave Ho’ which is actually about the second coming of Christ. I don’t know if most people is picking up on that.

MENASSAT: Do you see yourself moving towards to the more Damon Albarn, Gorillaz-vibe or more the ARAP, Cilvaringz sound?

EJ: “Well, ARAP for sure. But, I love what’s goin’ on with Damon. I don’t like being boxed in or defined by any one movement though, or one sound.”

“I’m working on an album with a Palestinian electronic music producer in the UK, Darwish, and it’s not hip-hop.”

“I’m also doing stuff with some of these hip white boy bands like Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly – Baby Shambles – Reverend and the Makers, Magic Numbers, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

“But I’m excited to see what happens with ‘Mammoth Tusk.’ It’s been such a long process.”

Found another interesting video, this time on the Independent newspaper website.

It’s called ‘Melting Pot’ and it’s part of their Green TV section. It’s all about green activism and features members of groups such as Plane Stupid and Greenpeace.

It was an extremely enlightening video, exploring and exposing the lengths to which the authorities (chiefly the police) go to undermine environmental protests and activists, in effect attempting to curtail citizens’ right to freedom of expression.

And so, the police send undercover agents to infiltrate various organisations to spy on, and discredit and disrupt, their operations.

In one bit of the film, a Greenpeace activist spoke about when he, along with the members of his protest group, were labeled terrorists. At the time they were protesting against the growth in the short haul market (deemed particularly damaging to the environment) and had camped out on one of the taxiways of Nottingham’s East Midlands airport (chosen because it specialises in short haul flights). This prevented planes from leaving. They called it ‘Sermon on the Runway.’

OK, that is a pretty extreme demonstration of green activism and they did breach security, but I don’t think it warranted them being labeled as terrorists all the same. I mean, they had apparently notified the police in advance of this peaceful protest and by positioning themselves on the taxiway, rather than the runway, had taken steps to ensure the public’s safety by allowing planes to land in case of an emergency.

Other parts of the film featured politicians and lawyers talking about how police tactics push the use of terrorism legislation to the extreme and into a grey area. It is being used to stop and search any protester, for example.

Journalists who participated in the film explained that they are routinely arrested and held without charge after covering a protest. And they are held until news deadlines pass. Clearly an attempt at news management.

A section showed a freelance journalist being questioned by police at a protest. He was following the event and police began quizzing him on what he was doing. When he told them that he was a freelancer, the police said ‘oh, so you’re not really a member of the press then.’ He was eventually told to turn off his camera. It all seemed pretty fascist if you ask me.

Activists claim that the press is biased in favour of big business. The Evening Standard was indeed slapped on the wrist by the Press Complaints Commission for fabricating a story about climate change campaigners at Heathrow in what activists have called a blatant attempt to smear their activities.

What was interesting was hearing, from a journalist, that environmental activism reporting is not exactly professional. Journalists are simply reading from press releases that are sent to them by corporations and simply regurgitating it. They don’t even bother going to the protests to see the other side of things.

Firstly, that’s plane lazy. And secondly, and far more importantly, it’s just shocking how bad that sort of journalism is. In fact, it’s not even journalism, it’s PR. It just contributes to the negative spinning against environmental campaigners.

We, as journalism students, are quite rightly taught about the ethics and professional standards we must uphold when we enter the real world. We are the voice that brings the news into the living rooms of people around the country. As such, there is an unquestionable need to be impartial and objective in order to inform in the best and most effective manner.

Just last week, a guest lecturer told us that journalists have never enjoyed the public’s trust, and that it is getting in fact getting worse. I think one of the stats we were presented with showed that print journalists are considered less trustworthy than estate agents. Enough said. Shoddy reporting of any kind just undermines the profession’s credibility and needs to be addressed.

Portions of the press are playing a significant role in pushing activists to the extreme and fringe of environmental debate.

I personally may not agree with the manner in which environmental protests are carried out, but you can bet that should I be called upon to cover an event at some point in my career, I will be out there getting the other side of the story and not just sitting behind my desk, relying solely upon the PR machine of big business to report what is happening.

If you’re interested, check out the video. Just click here. I found it be an informative watch and it certainly raised question in my head on how environmental protests are dealt with by the police and how the press goes about the reporting of such news.

I read a dirge by famous columnist Vir Sanghvi—in a blog he maintains for hindustantimes.com—on the death of the front page over the last year or so. As a consumer of more than half a dozen newspapers I can also vouch for receiving some dead bodies on a daily basis. And here I mean not just the front page but that part of the bundle that goes to the heap in the storeroom with every crease in tact.

I buy different newspapers for different reasons and despite the recession some of them are part of an old habit while some of them are just for my neighbours to know that a journalist lives here and, therefore, buys more newspapers and magazines; never mind the fact that the world and he himself is recession hit.

This post is also an elegy, though the scope here is vast and encompasses much more than just the front page and tries to sniff if behind the death of the front page is the debris of the strongest pillar of the fourth estate; the institution of the editor. I don’t have extensive factual basis for such a nauseating inkling but then it has been that kind of a year where I am finding it difficult to believe that the six-letter title of ‘editor’ automatically means some simple ‘virtues’ like transparency, ethics, a basic minimum honesty, the competence to gauge the merit of a story and the most important quality to know what to do when confronted with an ethical dilemma.

“The newspaper is of necessity something of a monopoly, and its first duty is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation, must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free but facts are sacred.”—C.P. Scott, Editor, Manchester Guardian, May 6, 1926.

This is a time when the newspapers are competing with quality material that readers have access to much before the broadsheet comes out and that number is going to go up with the broadband coming, the economy growing, and the literacy rate climbing up. Quality is going to live and no matter where it is the interested reader will get to it.

That does not in any way mean that the bullshit is going to go away because a lot of people don’t know the difference and a lot of journalists cater to that market because they don’t know what else to do themselves; so all of it lives side by side. I have had some classic interactions over the years with the relatively-new as well as the senior old hands to have a decent first-hand experience of journalistic ‘copelessness’. The details are both horrifying and hilarious and some of them have even been on official channels; it is at best a subject for a book and not a long post.

The average marketing professional has his logic: “We’ve come up with a study that the market loves bullshit and we don’t understand why you can’t give more of it.” A story I read in livemint.com by Aakar Patel explores whether India’s high-growth can continue and says, “Nine half-literates are produced by our colleges, by Nasscom’s numbers, for every graduate of passable quality.” Mathematically then there has to be a probability for these semi-literates finding a way to the newsrooms. And also some probability of heading the newsroom. Also if there is just one literate for every nine semi-literates; it would be quite unsuccessful to cater to just 10 per cent of the population that is of passable quality.

So I come to my morning bundle and the Hindustan Times is the first paper I see on Sundays for the columnists I follow; on other days I look at its design and then go elsewhere to find something to read. I take The Indian Express for news as their reportage is excellent. The Times of India to see the pace and the direction that the market-leader is setting. The Economic Times for clean good copy that one can learn from and for some of their international business coverage that is unlikely to be found in any other paper. Last Saturday I took my first Crest and it was a pleasure; the edition was miles ahead of what any paper had on Tendulkar completing 20 years of international cricket. Three more daily papers that do not deserve mentioning serve some purpose or the other in my house.

When columnist Patricia Smith of the Boston Globe was forced out in June 1998 after having been found to have made up quotes, Andrew Marshall of the British newspaper The Independent had a go at his American peers in an article on June 23, 1998.

“British journalists have been smirking at two high-profile scandals involving two of their American peers who made up quotes and events in articles for two highly-respected publications. No, that sentence will not do. Since we are writing on the subject of journalistic accuracy, let’s be spot on. British journalists have been laughing hysterically, slapping their thighs and fighting desperately to retain bladder control. ‘We have long suspected that all this fact checking stuff was a charade,’ said a source close to me yesterday. ‘And now we know.’”

It is quite natural to think that lapses in journalistic accuracy would cause some major concern to our editors as well. And to point them out would not be considered as tantamount to being ‘the enemy of the fourth estate’ in India. As a journalist it is very heartening to know via the Medium Term that the heart of the Chairperson of a large newspaper house of the country is tilted positively towards the editorial aspect of the business. What is disheartening is that the hearts and minds of ‘some of the people’ responsible for editorial quality and journalistic ethics in the same newspaper house are not in their jobs. I’ll spare you the details but don’t be disappointed they will come up in the static pages once I have learnt how to organise the sub-folders.

On Saturday, though, the Hindustan Times did an exceptional bit of investigative journalism on a front page top box with a wonderful picture of Tendulkar under a good headline ‘The everlasting run machine’. I should not have been reading it as it was not a Sunday but I did; and so I found out.

“30,065 Runs scored in international cricket in both forms of the game (Tests and ODIs), the highest by any batsman. Ricky Ponting, again at second place has 24,057.” The numbers are wrong in both the cases; by 10 runs for Tendulkar and by 401 runs for Ponting. The sum total actually is in all three forms of international cricket where Tendulkar has played just one T20 international and scored 10 runs while Ponting has played 17 matches and 16 innings for his 401 runs. Although it is a very complicated error to achieve; it is understandable that this could have happened due to lack of communication.

Lets gear up for the investigative part now. “43 Centuries scored in Tests, the most by any batsman. Ricky Ponting of Australia comes second with 39.” This is an open insult in a country where cricket is a national obsession and the gap between the Little Master and the Tasmanian called Punter a subject of everyday discussions. Ponting scored his 38th Test hundred in the first Ashes Test of 2009 played in Cardiff beginning 8th July and did not manage a three figure score in the rest of the series. Who knows where he was caught scoring his 39th Test century after the series was won 2-1 by England and I signed off writing a post titled ‘A Sad Ashen Pundit’ after HT signed off with ‘A Sad Ashen Look’?

Last week my older brother Gareth mailed me the very final edition of the Neath Guardian, a local weekly newspaper published in South Wales, every week for the last 84 years. it’s owners Media Wales cited “challenging economic conditions affecting local advertising markets and a declining trend in weekly newspaper sales”.

The current editor of The Independent, Simon Kelner, was once an editor of the Neath Guradian, read about his experiences here…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/sep/30/local-newspapers-trinity-mirror

Also last week my son phoned letting me know the latest in the administration of FQR Group the owners of the Threshers off licence chain, where Tom is the manager of the Whalley shop. Although they have closed half their shops, Tom’s isn’t one of them as in the last year he has turned his store into a profitable outlet, so it is now attractive to buyers. FQR blames ‘cut price supermarket competition’.

Yes, the challenging economic conditions put the nail in the coffin but the Neath Guardian, Threshers, and Woolworths before it, were dying anyway it was only a matter of time.

So why were they dying. Simple answer…competition. People still have a desire for news, arguably more than ever before. People still have a desire for wine and beer, arguably more than ever before. What is changing is the way that people are acquiring these products…so if they aren’t buying from the Neath Guardian or from Threshers, they must be buying it from the competition.

Logic says then that if people have a desire for the product you sell, then to continue being successful you have to stay ahead of the competition. And to stay ahead of the competition you have to continually look at the way your market is acquiring your product, and develop and evolve your offering, so that you can give them something that your competition can’t. Oh, and then you have to tell them about it.

This is where a good marketing and communications agency will help. The knowledge and experience of your agency can help you with ideas on how to stay ahead of your competition. I’m not saying we can resurrect products whose time is clearly past, but  good agencies, like Workhouse Marketing, aren’t just concept and artwork providers, we are there to help achieve the long term success and sustainability of your business.

Time to go, just nipping out for a paper and a four pack……or will I have to go to Tesco?

Mark Jones. Workhouse Marketing.

After Julie Bennett conquered the industry of graphic design in high-end music magazines like NME, she found a new niche in painting where she could get her hands dirty. A few years ago, when she exhibited her work in the Saatchi Online Gallery, The Independent labelled her one of “Saatchi’s new stars”. Her unique style has also gained her attention from The Evening Standard, The Sunday Times and Artists and Illustrators Magazine. She’s exhibited her paintings all around London from the Sassoon Gallery to the Sartorial Gallery.

Catch her latest work in the “Girls at Gold” show at The Gallery, Goldsmiths Student Union which features eight female artists – four from Camberwell, where Julie is currently studying, and four from Goldsmiths. The show opens on Monday 23 November and runs until 11 December. More info here. Julie’s website is www.juliebennett.co.uk.

A native Londoner, Julie gives us a bit of insight into how the city influences her work, talks about her failed attempt at becoming a rock star and her infatuation with Boy George.

Andrea

LLO: How has living in London influenced your painting?
JB: I was born in London so London is obviously a massive part of my life. Even though I’ve travelled around, London is still my favourite place. I absolutely love the diversity of people. It’s great for portraits. I’m always so inspired by walking the street and people watching on the tube. I want to take photos of people sometimes, but obviously I can’t.

Girl with Feather Earring

LLO: Your background is in graphic design for some big magazines like NME and Q. What made you turn to painting, and do you find your design experience inspires your current work?
JB: I achieved all my dreams in graphic design – to work in music, at NME and Q. I worked at nearly every music magazine London holds – Kerrang!, Classic Rock. I even worked for a bit on the UK launch of Rolling Stone magazine. I needed a new dream, so I decided to become a rock star. I enrolled on a guitar course at Goldsmiths for two years, but I was really, really bad and had no talent to write my own music. So I decided to try painting. I enrolled on a painting course at Slade. It was brilliant, exactly what I needed. I was excited to use paint and get messy. You don’t get messy with graphic design. My graphics experience comes into painting in that I’m so interested in magazines and popular culture.

Come Back to Camden

LLO: Many of the characters you paint have an androgynous look about them and your signature style is also quite layered with a dripping effect slightly distorting the faces. Can you tell us a bit about your style?
JB: It’s a celebration of paint. I allow the paint to be free. Representation isn’t really important to me. It’s more about the materials. Allowing paint to drip shows it’s still paint. Sometimes it still looks wet. Graphics is so flat, shiny and perfect. My painting is about the material, about the paint. The androgynous look is not something I go about doing on purpose. It just comes out because I’m pretty open and interested in androgynous people. I grew up a massive fan of Boy George and K. D. Lang.

Izzy After Camden

LLO: What do you think is the role of painting today and where does your work fit in?
JB: Painting is a form of entertainment. Its role is really to give us something beautiful to look at and I hope my work does that.

TVs

 Thanks Julie!

My opinion on the below article:

It is important to remember that what most people think are applications are actually widgets.  It is these widgets that have a shelve life of 3-4 days before being discarded.  How many widgets do you have on your computer?  Not many I expect.  However, the more dynamic true applications or web applications actually have a much longer shelve life.  The utility based apps that have an everyday purpose are the ones that will continue to be of value on a continued basis in the coming years.  Here are some examples:

Travel: Tickets, boarding passes, informational services and promotional services

Maps: TomTom, Google,

Banking:  Balance, Transfers, Payments, Find Nearest Bank/ATM

Automotive: Car service updates & monitoring + promotional sales & informational

Mobile Internet Launchers: for general mobile web as openess becomes a reality

Instant Messaging/Social Media

Augmented Reality: Promotional Services

Couponing/Loyalty Redemption

Location Based Services – Social, Information and Promotional Advertising

Music/Events – Information, Ticketing, Promotional Sales

Mobile Search

Health Services

Please see the article below from the Independent website:

Relax News Wednesday, 18 November 2009

Market researcher Gartner has pinpointed the top ten consumer mobile applications consumers will be using and downloading in the year 2012. The most popularly used applications will include those designed to facilitate mobile money transfers, location-based services and mobile search said Gartner in its November 18 report. In the past, consumers purchased mobile phones based on the built-in features that came standard with the handset. With the arrival of smartphone operating systems capable of running third-party applications, consumers were freed from the phone maker’s confines and were able to customize their devices with powerful applications tailored to their own needs. Future mobile trends point to a widening of this segment, with third-party applications breaking into the mainstream mobile market and even breaking through to many lower-priced handsets. “Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the prerogative of mobile carriers,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. “The increasing consumer interest in smartphones, the participation of internet players in the mobile space, and the emergence of application stores and cross-industry services are reducing the dominance of mobile carriers. Each player will influence how the application is delivered and experienced by consumers, who ultimately vote with their attention and spending power.” Mobile phone makers, inspired by the success (and profitability) of Apple’s App Store, have all eagerly jumped into the market, opening their own propriety application stores. Application developers too have embraced the market, resulting in the creation of hundreds of thousands of new application for mobile devices. The wide availability of applications has given consumers free range on mobile customization, but research shows that many apps are being downloaded, used once or twice and then deleted from phones. “We predict that most users will use no more than five mobile applications at a time and most future opportunities will come from niche market ‘killer applications’,” reveals Shen. Gartner predicts applications in the categories of mobile payments, location-based services, those that provide fast search results for users on the go and applications that facilitate mobile internet browsing will be among the top ten mobile applications for 2012. Gartner’s list of top ten consumer mobile applications for 2012:

 

1: Money Transfer

2: Location-Based Services

3: Mobile Search

4: Mobile Browsing

5: Mobile Health Monitoring

6: Mobile Payment

7: Near Field Communication Services

8: Mobile Advertising

9: Mobile Instant Messaging

10: Mobile Music

For more specific information about each mobile application category and to read the full report head to http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1230413.

URL Link to the Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/mobile-application-trends-for-2012-the-top-ten-applications-1822948.html

I was sent an interesting link from Huffington Post yesterday.  In her article, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein brings to light the UN “fat map” in response to the growing hunger taking over the world.  Her article makes many good points and is worth reading, especially as those of us in the U.S. prepare to gorge ourselves on Thanksgiving Day.

While the U.S. and Australia look like they are going to explode, their land mass hides the bloated size of Europe, Japan, and several Middle East countries.

I have read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I have seen Food, Inc., Blue Gold, and King Corn, and I recommend that all of us who live in these lands of affluence do the same.  If not for our own health, for the sake of others.  To be sure, the book and documentaries are not fool-proof, but they are vital to our understanding of our food systems and their ramifications.  Hopefully they will also get people to thinking about where they fit into this globalized world of ours.

I think when people consider buying non-processed and non-industrial food, they will see their financial position is further down the ol’ totem pole than they thought.

But what I find most interesting about the Princess’ article is the princess herself.  She resides in Dubai, one of the most unsustainable habitats on this planet.  From indoor ski slopes, to multi-million dollar islands, to a hidden slave population that keeps building it ever higher, Dubai consumes and pollutes in its effort to become “a Shangri-La in the Middle East” says Johann Hari in his long but eye-opening article in The Independent.

Dubai is not just a city living beyond its financial means; it is living beyond its ecological means. You stand on a manicured Dubai lawn and watch the sprinklers spray water all around you. You see tourists flocking to swim with dolphins. You wander into a mountain-sized freezer where they have built a ski slope with real snow. And a voice at the back of your head squeaks: this is the desert. This is the most water-stressed place on the planet. How can this be happening? How is it possible? The very earth is trying to repel Dubai, to dry it up and blow it away. The new Tiger Woods Gold Course needs four million gallons of water to be pumped on to its grounds every day, or it would simply shrivel and disappear on the winds.

So how does a princess, a recipient of the wealth being dumped into Dubai, tell the world it needs to cut its calorie consumption and expect to be taken seriously?

She doesn’t, and neither do the politicians driveling on in speech after speech about the moral imperative we have to feed the starving people of the world.  With massive conglomerate corporations lining the pockets of politicians, nothing will change.

After watching the documentaries and doing a little research into the subsidies given to farmers who dump food into world markets and destroy local economies exacerbating the hunger crisis, you might feel a little overwhelmed and think the problem is too big for us.

May I suggest another movie?

-mike

George Osborne may appear out of touch but wait until you hear about Jacob Rees-Mogg

There are two men that epitomise the ‘new’ Conservative party, they are George Osborne and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Now, on the surface, George might seem to be quite a reasonable young chap, well-to-do maybe, but basically a good Cheshire MP.  It may come as a surprise that he recently said that; his inheritance tax cut on properties worth £1m would be enjoyed by people living in ex-council houses. He then said his £20,000 a year private school, St Paul’s, is “incredibly liberal” because “your mother could be the head of a giant corporation, or a solicitor in Kew.”

As Johann Hari says; ‘if you think council houses are worth a million quid and solicitors in Kew are the lowest rung on the social ladder you can imagine.’

But if George appears detached from reality then Jacob is positively divorced from the 21^st Century and arguably the 20^th!

Jacob, 40, has attended public events with his nanny, who he calls ‘Nanny’ when addressing her. At one event, when challenged over the issue, he said; “If I’ve got a nanny, I’ve got a nanny. And if anybody doesn’t like it – tough!” He then added: “I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about my nanny. If I had a valet you’d think it was perfectly normal.” 

I really hope the new rules for employing MPs spouses will be extended to MPs nannies!

Now I am a very reasonable chap but does this not strike you as being somebody who is so out of touch with modern society that really he, and his Tory chums, should not be let loose with a modern, progressive democracy?

Johann Hari has written an excellent article, in today’s Independent, on why no one should ever vote Conservative, and I commend it to you.

Mr. Williams (photo credit: unknown)

Was blessed to see Mr. Saul Williams perform again, this time at The Independent. Saul is the real deal. A gifted poet with a background in acting, he blends his talents into musical performance art.

The Evolution Continues

I’ve experienced the evolution of his shows over the last ten years, from quiet low-light poetry sessions, to flamboyant hip-hop-soul-rock concerts accented with his famous prowess for spoken word. Here’s Saul going from old-school to new at the show:

And here he is slipping into a performance of his master poem, Coded Language:

Check out more Saul here.

Hope you’re feeling inspired. Now grab your favorite pen and get to scribbling…

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