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Kitsch me if you can...

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Easter weekend is here . Out hops the stuffed bunnies in all shapes and sizes; they hang from windows, perch happily at mall cafes and frame chocolate isles of supermarkets. Its not a sin to be furry and cute. Its their duty. Their presence is considered appropriate to mark this ritual event. In fact, we expect kitsch to be at places of common ground only to reinforce our social distance from it. The masses allow for the elite to exist. So it is no wonder that one feels unnerved when one sees these creatures in their furry glory infiltrate your exclusive moments at what you consider a classy Belgian restaurant. While a real French speaking hostess serves a four course meal and punctuates your dinner at strategic times to make sure your wine glass is full, you see Easter kitsch seep through EVERYWHERE! As you sit by the window, a wonderful landscape view of the hills of the Ardennes is tainted by a nest of eggs on your table; a humble potted plant is violated by gaudy yellow feathers

Flowers speak louder to the expat Dutch wannabe...but why?

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I ask my students if they are planning on going to the Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden spectacle. They justifiably don't understand my pronunciation until a kindly soul who has mastered the deciphering of my butchered Dutch words rephrases the question for the class. "Thats only for old people and tourists," remarks one, followed by unanimous nods from across the room. I inform them that I just bought my tickets. In this masterful, single-handed stroke, I have just underlined in their minds how old I actually am! I take this further. I ask my Dutch colleagues if they are going to the Keukenhof. They ask why would they? They ruthlessly disrupt my definition of this event as an "older Dutch sport" as absolutely lacking evidence and foundation. Not ONE 'older' Dutch colleague has been to it nor plans to go. It's not like people here don't like flowers. On the contrary. This is a flower-loving nation. Its inherently unfair that the h

Stranger in a strange land is not so alone after all!

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How sentimental we can get of the good old days where you could ring the bell of your neighbor for a cup of sugar or stop the policeman to ask how his family is doing. Actually, this is the marketed nostalgia many of us have grown up with; a world of yesteryear where what is now seen as impossible was once, possible and for all probably reasons, true and genuine. We yearn for a packaged past that has been sold to us. Today, we crave community and desperately glorify city youth intermingling and dependencies as a new “ urban tribe ” behavior– a reassembling of family affiliations and sentiments into a more channeled and contemporary neo-familial relationship based on raw and selfish need. Social networking sites resemble an online tribal dance. But the underling premise here is that these “old” community patterns have been reinvented on cyberspace. Yet, if you stop and think, perhaps you may struggle like myself to remember the warm sentiments and comfort of the strangers of the past;

Computers are people too!

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Bloggers beware. You thought you were writing for a bunch of info addicts or a grannie with ten cats but alas, you may actually be writing for a far different audience. Be it your instruction manual on how to make a good burrito or your pontifications on the latest video of Lady Gaga and Beyonce, your musings are becoming more and more deeply relevant to your new audience…the computer. You, my dear blogger have given computers a new lease to life! “…the web could be mined to track information about emerging trends and behaviours, covering everything from drug use or racial tension to interest in films or new products. The nature of blogging means that people are quick to comment on events in their daily lives. Mining this sort of information might therefore also reveal information about exactly how ideas are spread and trends are set.” – The Economist, March 11th 2010 http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660874 Isn’t it nice to be heard in bits and

Manufacturing ourselves: What's wrong with that?

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A picture speaks a thousand words…yeah I know, what a cliché. Do videos speak more I wonder? So are we experiencing a textual silence or reserve perhaps in this new media age? Hardly. And what happens with all this contemporary chattering? Who is listening? Who cares enough to listen? Apparently not many according to media consumer analysts. People are too busy speaking about themselves, their day, their fleeting thoughts on toilet paper, baby nappies and strawberry yogurt often through the wonderful and humble medium of the picture. As I partake in this tradition by manufacturing my typical day and social life on Facebook as posed moments at happening events, I wonder what’s all the fuss about. After all, we are supposed to be our own best PR agent. If you don’t manufacture yourself, few people will care to do so on your behalf or worse yet, construct you through a montage that is not true to your desired manufactured self. Of course, self PR needs constant work. Me-branding article

Annual Museum Night in Rotterdam- Art becomes life!

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What a wonderful idea isn't it? To make " high " culture a popular event is a challenge that the Netherlands seems to have met and even superseded expectations. Here's a glimpse of the program of the night: All 45 museums and galleries participating in the ninth edition of the Rotterdam Museum Night have announced their programmes, inspired by the theme XS/XL. The spectacular opening at 20.00 hours outside the Laurenskerk will kick off with a musical highlight of XS singing tones, XL music and 999 eyes that will be let off to wander through the night by the minister of Culture Ronald Plasterk. The programme of the Museum Night is varied and consists of pure highlights. The Witte de Withstraat and the Museumpark is the booming centre of the night. Let yourself be surprised by the eccentric circus at Alliance Française or relive your puberty in the National Museum of Education (Nationaal Onderwijsmuseum). Make your own inventions in the Kunsthal, create your own dream

Gawk and Learn?

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Theme parks of the most unique kind are springing up everywhere! Leisure is taking a new turn. Recently Kunming, an area of 13,000 acres in southern China’s Yunnan Province is being converted into a Disney land of the little people. Tourists can come by to immerse in the spectacle of dwarfs performing and living at the same time; it’s a veritable live reality show. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/world/asia/04dwarfs.html?em Are these frozen realities that we choose not to see? Will we wake up and feel more inclined to think about disability more deeply or have we made disability exotic here? And even if it has been made exotic, can we argue that perhaps it is still better to be visible than invisible? Or take for instance the efforts of harnessing the ready-made reality of slums in Mumbai, India, as a tourist attraction to educate and entertain. Packaged tours of poverty sold for the common good? Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum covers an area of 530 acres and sweeps you with experience

Let's talk dirty?

Good intentions drive me mad. The moment you start talking about intent, it means you've failed in what you were trying to achieve right? I'm a victim of my own good intent. In class, I want to talk about countries and people that have been made exotic over decades if not longer; I want to talk about countries that have been written off as poor, corrupt and pretty much basket cases of the world. Say you bring up Ethiopia, besides our Michael Jackson's We are the world pop song charity event and famine jokes (that apparently is now off the politically correct radar on what can be made fun of), what comes to mind in the average youth? Or take South Africa and but for our man Mandela and Bono duo, rugby, and apartheid, it's pretty much a frozen picture. The idea here is to get to be less myopic about the world and more excited about global dynamism n all. Sounds all noble but hey, intent is pretty much always screwed. This is why. To talk about a context, you've got

ATTENTION Please! Is shock the only way out these days for social marketing?

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Marriage versus an affair

I confess..I'm a PC person...PC has been my companion for the last 10 years...we now have a solid marriage; you know the kind where you know exactly what to do to get PC all fuzzy and happy; learning to tolerate and then actually start to like its quirks and moods; got great memories of us trekking the Himalayas to the villages in Guatemala. They say he doesn't look like much but I say that he is a grounded guy, who has no problem in roughing it. They say that he is too much of a common man, sort of like a village bumpkin, not very sophisticated, not very visionary but I say, he is truly worldly and that the great thing about being common is that he relates to more people than not. So in comes Mac, the slick talker who struts his style. In fact, my parents hooked us up with the best of intentions. I was gifted the MacBook Air, slim, sexy and seductive. But come on...I feel like if I sneeze, Mac may just fall apart! Its so delicate and light that you wonder if its really designe

Karaoke Kills?

Sinatra has done it again...no, not got the hearts and minds with his music but rather, got the hands to work overtime; apparently, people in the Philippines are  busy stabbing each other over the singing of "My Way." Alright, I'm falling into the usual sensationalizing of such news as it makes good copy but with the recent murders happening in the guise of Filipino passion for this song, this has taken on quite a legendary status.  Its strange to associate such violence and rage with karaoke, especially since I've been touting karaoke as an amazing tool for social engagement and edutainment from my research work in rural India. http://planetread.com The Same Language Subtitling project that I researched on was pioneered by Dr. Brij Kothari. The idea is simple really...people in rural areas watch alot of TV, particularly Bollywood songs and the argument goes that if only we put the lyrics at the bottom of the screen that highlighted as it got sang, people would be abl

The Science of passion?

Can social science academics write with passion (pre-tenure of course)! After all, didn’t many of us get drawn to this field because we were just innately and insatiably curious about everything and better yet, wanted to be paid to think deeply about it, and share this through our teachings and writings? I love the drama of writing…truly. Just coming up with titles gets me in a tizzy. Isn’t it better to say “I can’t do Barbra” than “Social Learning in Multi-contextual environments?” [See this article of mine, http://www.payalarora.com/Publications/EdPhil-TheoryJ-2008.pdf ]. Does this compromise on what I’m saying or does it enhance the experience of thought? I mean, our social scientific methods can keep us disciplined enough to control our biases but it’s our biases that makes for real passion!

Mind the Gap?

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We are obsessed with difference. No doubt that every technology impacts society. No doubt that every new generation gets accustomed to certain unique ways of communicating through novel mediums. It is therefore natural for people to be concerned with “generation gaps.” The acceleration of technological change is assumed to create an acceleration of difference. Yes. It is assumed however but not determined. Expectations are but one aspect of new technology usage. We forget though that most technologies are used to fulfil something very basic and fundamental – the fostering, strengthening, and enhancing of relationships. The end incentive is not to maximize new technology but to maximize human relationships. Thereby, regardless of the widening spaces between generations, the panic of “mini-generations gaps” needs to be grounded; to remind oneself that people will continue to use a plethora of technologies to stay in touch, to connect, and to share. When I moved to the US from India in 19

Soap Opera of Google and Apple- Are we missing Microsoft as yet?

Strange how we now read news of Google and Apple having a face off with each other with little mention of our good ole timer Microsoft. Google releases their Nexus One cellphone against the popular iPhone model, quite a bold step into the highly marked territories of Apple. In turn, Apple has just acquired Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising company. The stakes at this turf war seem serious. And much like a good Hollywood script, the cast of characters are set. Apple and Google, who bonded in the past over their mutual enemy, Microsoft, are now finding themselves in line of each other's fire. The question is...why is Microsoft silent in all this? Is it because its had its time of day? Is it because Microsoft without Bill Gates is like a sizzler without the sizzle? Or is Microsoft learning the benefits of spectator sport?

Presenting at the Global Communication Association Conference

The Global Communication Association conference held at Bangalore was fascinating not just in its rituals [the only conference I ve been to that actually has politicians addressing the audience for almost 2 hours] but also its allowance for more "meaningful networking." Yes, this seems like an oxymoron but it did play out, genuinely so due to the critical size of the attendees. Few of us, including Yahya Kamalipour, Head of Dept of Communication and Director of the Centre for Global Studies at Purdue University, Orayb Najjar from Northern Illinois University, and myself got invited to speak at Manipal University on the topic of "Rethinking the Media Manifesto for an Equitable World Order." This was facilitated by the very challenging MD Nalapat, UNESCO Chair at Manipal University. Check it out... http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=69015