Tag: tech and multi-cultural marketing

Back then, it was Live Aid made possible via satellite uplink. Now, it’s You Tube to bring much-needed aid to Haiti.

http://www.youtube.com/wearetheworld#p/a/u/0/Glny4jSciVI

Cool! That’s what technology and wisdom of crowd are for: rushing in to lift the death and dying out of the rubble.

After all, aren’t we the world? Yes, we are the world.

I hope you have Xtreme DSL connection speed.

Each “donation per click” will definitely save some lives down there, now that compassion fatigue is setting in.

Unfortunately, it seems as though charity flow from  information rich to information poor zones.

It’s true that nations are competitive because their information infrastructure are strong (S Korea, Singapore,  Japan, N European zones).

India and Ireland have been show cases of how visionary their governments were in investing in “knowledge-based infra structure”,  away from smokestack imprisonment.

Creative genius and technology lovers at first find digital platform alien (old film school folks still have uneasiness with digital video gears). But given the scope and breath, more flattened, they became late adopters in the game. After all, we are the world. Like my friend said, no choice. What they serve on the plate is what you have to take. Poison pills or smart mobs? We will always adjust as we go.

I never forget a fictional? story of a man on tight rope walking (illegally) between the Twin Towers (before 9/11 of course).

We are the world and we are that man, who is on the move between two pillars (analog vs digital worlds) on a balancing act.  Or to amuse ourselves, think of Jackie Chan in Rush Hour, who has to fight the bad guys, while trying to keep his towel from falling . You only have two hands at any one time. That’s why we need each other for the bigger gig. We are the World. And it’s getting easier to give now than ever  before. Just click “DONATE NOW”. The first click is the hardest, to paraphrase Sheryl Crow’s First Cut is the Deepest. But then, like the old woman who can pick up the huge pig: she has carried it since birth, one kilogram at a time.

SoS Clinton sends New Year greetings to Asian and Asian-American, restating “mutual respect and mutual interest across borders and races”.

http://www.vnexpress.net/GL/The-gioi/2010/02/3BA18CB0/

Yet in Little Saigon, Westminster, CA a Tet (Lunar New Year) parade draws fire. Reason: Gay and Lesbian group is also participating, follows the tradition their counter parts have set in San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade. But this is a hard sell: Orange County lily white, and it’ s a suburb, an hour from Los Angeles.

So warring is waging on. No one seems to heed Ms Clinton’s words on this sacred New Year. If anything, it’s Valentine as well.

If I were a parent of one of those kids, I would march with them, fight for them and be vocalized. It’s 2010 and people want to bring us back to the Dark Age, when you can stigmatize anyone without  medical evidence to support your allegation.

I guess in this century, it’s easier to preach “mutual interest” than “mutual respect”.  Ms Clinton got her wording order right: respect must come before  interest. Without respect, people would just take what they came for, and left bodies behind.

Yesterday, at a faculty meeting of UA, a Harvard grad faculty shot her colleagues. No detail yet to be revealed about this incident.

But obviously, it’s over disagreement and more than obviously, about disgust (extreme  form of disrespect).

Tough world.  Tough time. A lot of pent-up negativism. Even amidst a parade to celebrate cherry blossom, season change. But a change of heart is hard to come by. We need Valentine once a month. Just to shed bad blood. Somehow, we are wired to be empathic race, but too shy to show.

There is a book entitled “when elephants weep”. Aren’t we a better species than big E. On another note, I think Tila Tequila is now taking over where Pamela Anderson left off, The King of Pop took over from the King of Rock. And Jay Leno is taking over from Conan who took over from JL.

Happy New Year, Ms Clinton. Hope your husband recover from that recent “tune up”.

It begins to look a lot like Microsoft back in 2000 i.e. domination with a shade of abomination.

Google provides phone, fast broadband for up to a selected half a million, and is busy acquiring Ask-your-friends query site.

This is after its rolling out of Chrome and Nexus One.

Deja vu!

Meanwhile, Microsoft is trying to ramp up BING with “intelligent apps”, and not just Search (too academic, too Ivy League).

I am still a Yahoo loyalist.

But in my experience, when the two giants are battling each other, it tends to side line whoever is on third ( Hertz and Avis – can’t remember Alamo). It’s a logical brand extension for Google to take control, from Cloud to Curb. That way, it can offer users a full experience, just like Cameron who made Avatar and now sells 3-D glasses for vertical integration.

It’s 2010. Not 2000. And our perception of the world and the Web has to change as well.

The last time people stood around to complain about MS monopoly was at Telecom trade shows.

Now, we have moved on, from trade shows to Facebook, from Harvard Square to virtual town square. And even on this platform, we have seen a series of changes : informing friends of your pick, suggesting who you might want to befriend (Amazon algorithm).

The intriguing question is, how are things going to look like in 2020? a China without Google? Greece who can’t afford to host its own Olympic?

Yahoo-BING union? Sometimes, it is better to resist the urge to merge (AOL-Time/Warner). But it is also hard to be number 3. At least, you can say in the ad, as Avis did, that “being number 2, we work harder”. How can you “spin” being number 3 (we are busy working on building out 4G?).

And again, the current TV “Ben Franklin” ads between Verizon and ATT networks brought back memories of those “True/False” volley between MCI and ATT. Back then, it was about long distance service. And again, Sprint was trying to chime in with “its sound of silence.., of a pin drop”. Bye Candice.

A new study so our grad assistants wouldn’t be succumbed to the very symptom they research i.e. Boredom tentatively leads to higher rates of heart attack (because people would smoke, drink and lead unhealthy lives).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1249073/You-really-bored-death-scientists-discover.html

I read somewhere that retired spies normally died within their first years out of service.

Boredom.

How could someone living in this age of over-stimuli arrive at this Medieval malaise?

The monotony of  a desk  job? “Next!”.

The ABC series “LOST” portrays various survivors of a fictional Oceanic flight, among them James Sawyer.

Even him, the least likely avid reader, reads whatever he can lay his hands on.

Or some people are bored  from “having seen it all” attitude (repeated patterns, old scripts etc… even with new Central Casting).

Speaking of casting, we found some changes in Boston last week: Camelot being replaced by ex male model (whose daughter was also an aspired American Idol).

Or that Watergate break-in now replaced by ACORN New Orleans break-in.

And that town gets to see a double parade: one for the Super Bowl heroes, and the other, Mardi Gras next Tuesday. Party on.

No boredom there in French Quarter. There is a Cafe du Monde which opens 24 hours in French Quarter. I believe I saw a few Vietnamese work there as waiters.

French Colonial ambience in heartland America.

Or, if you push it, there is a new book, entitled “0”, the Value of Nothing.  The author factors in hidden cost and opportunity cost  (environmental etc…)

that  should put the price of a hamburger to about $200 as opposed to 99 cents.

Wonder what the associated costs of boredom.

Government should put bureaucrats to conduct a National study on boredom, and how to prevent (stimulate) citizens into constructive action.

Like building a bridge to nowhere.

Once, when I came back from overseas (reverse culture shock), well-meaning ex-roommate from college even put me on a bus tour of Reading, PA with a blind man. Or when I took a Wilderness Survival course (spent a week camping solo on top of New Hampshire White Mountain), there was a Korean blind teammate joining us. Both instances I found stimulating. Even when I carry on my conversation by looking away from their stares.

No boredom there even when you were blind. So, it’s up to us, Netizen, to mix and match the right amount of stimuli, whether it came from sight, sound or smell.  Cologne or crunching cereal.

I heard people talk about National Highway Safety Agency napping i.e. bored, until all the recalls came in from Toyota and Honda. They should have joined rank with the Maytag man. I know where things are heating up, and no boredom there: emerging nations. They are busy counting the dollars earned from exporting. I am going start a factory which makes money- counting machines in the East. Nobody ever falls to sleep while counting money, only dies of boredom.

When Ted Turner decided to start a 24-hr news channel (CNN) people thought he was crazy.

Now we have 24-hour channels for everything, including the weather.

And we still don’t get enough: snow in DC, mudslide in LA  and earthquake in Chicago?

http://www.wptv.com/content/breakingnews/story/earthquake-chicago-illinois-midwest-4-3-magnitude/0Rs69-jI_UOmc58fXVc7YQ.cspx

Heartland America gets hit. This time from underground, not twisters from above.

Oklahoma is turning windy cities into windfalls.

Man’s dominion over nature, until nature flexes its muscle.

Mardi Gras in NO faces chilling parade, while Vancouver Winter Olympic starves for snow.

It’s best to dress for All-Season: Astronaut’s jump suit?

The weather affects us more than we have come to realize: cabin fever for one.

Here in Miami, college students up North are set to arrive for Spring Break.

There is always life after the Super Bowl.

Speaking of which, New Orleans made its mark in history this past Sunday.

Victims turned victors.

Who wouldn’t want to join in the Parade?

Chilling or not, French Quarter is where it is happening.

Until the weather reminds us once again that our celebration must include the biggest guest of all: Mother Nature.

The Year of the Tiger is here, knocking on our doors.

The Lunar and Western Calendars are having an “eclipse” : Lunar New Year  and Valentine’s Day both on Sunday (Christian Calendar).

While Valentine’s Day barely takes hold of Vietnamese youth culture, in other years, this year old tradition overshadows young hearts. Red lucky envelopes and fire crackers replace chocolate and bouquet. The personal and private give way to communal and traditional, horizontal to the vertical flow of history.

Here in the US, we see other seasonal calendars at work: President Day (political) Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue (cultural). The Church will have its Ash Wednesday (religious).

Have your pick of what day means more to you.

I have another calendar: the automated bank payment calendar. E-billing and E-payment.

The Asian mindset is such that, however bad the old was, let it pass. Very stoic. Can’t do much about it.

The important thing is on new year’s eve, people don’t go out to the village square to scream the “count down”.  (ain’t New York).

Instead, the house must be cleanly swept, and the door wide open. To bring in good spirits and air out past bad luck.

This year, I will open my door twice as wide, and a day early. Just to make room for the New New thing.

One cannot get hold of the new when busy holding on to the old.

Malone’s Law states that: “all technological solutions arrive later than we expect, but sooner that we are prepared for”.

It takes vision and courage to change, especially one’s self.

We can beat to dead the already dead horse: are we products of nature or nurture?

But somehow, deep inside us, the preferences and prejudices, early imprints and impressions still skew our choices.

They make us feel regretful or even remorseful (ever heard of buyer’s remorse?).

Can’t help but thinking of the used-car salesman who pretends not to recognize his yesterday’s prospect, who already is today’s customer.

There is no need for him to spend time with need-discovery phase. He did not think about positive word-of-mouth or reputational currency.

None of that. SOLD, says the sign on the dash board.

Good thing, in the East, we have a return of the same Symbol, every twelve years. You miss the last Tiger (1998), you can catch this year’s.

The belief in the next life arises from this cyclical mind-set: we can always settle the scores later, or next life. There is no need to play zero-sum game.

It may be a new year on the Western Calendar, but it’s an old symbol in the East. Everyone loves a Tiger, as long as it is already fed and well-stroked.

Happy New Year, my Chinese and Vietnamese friends.

Happy Valentines to the rest.

Wish you Tiger-size success.

Catharsis!

At various level. Half time deja-vu of the Who (40 years under the bridge). And the Happy Ending for Bourbon Street.

I was there before they let people with tickets in at Tail Gate. Just to take in the SB44 scene.

A lot of expectations. But Colts’ fans seemed to outnumber Saints’ in visibility. You see two blue team shirts for every black one.

But as we now know, luck has been with the Saints.

Number 22 interception. Straight for the end zone. What a rush!

See me! Feel me! Touch me! Heal me.

For three hours, the nation dropped everything, and eyes glued to the set.

We shared humorous commercials. We abhorred at the ridiculous ones. And we will remember Hyundai, Doritos and Snickers.

Everybody wins tonight. E*trade uses children (not bankers, whose ethics have been in question) to appear in its ads.

SB44 brought the audience together to share a special moment in time. Will anybody remember this night? I bet you, many would, least of which

the Who. Who would have thought after smashing his guitar at Woodstock that controversial Pete Townsend got a chance to play his signature songs and style (long hand counter-clockwise).

And of course, let’s not leave out New Orléans, where I have visited at least three times. And those for sure will not be my only trips after tonight.

I hear your song N.O. You are singing: “come and see me again”, heal me!

Each carried a “tax preparation” sign, the two women dressed in green “statue of Liberty”  and waved at passing cars on opposite side of the road.

I guess it’s Census time, Tax time and Super Bowl time.

And the seasons turn, turn, turn.

Our reclusive Salinger was gone for ever in the rye field. His protagonist Caulfield however lives on in the mind of  New Yorker.

In Fame, the Arts students ask each other: will anyone remember us?

I guess the Statue of Liberty, a centennial gift from the French , will be the most enduring one.

It looks scholarly, artsy and so…..liberte! Location, location, location. It is placed where you would normally find a lighthouse, supposedly to welcome strangers and stranded expats home.

Unlike what we would normally experience at  LAX or JFK back from overseas.

If First impressions last forever, then the US has a lot of  PR work to do.

But then, the assault on the senses continue to build: the sound of bodies blocking and bones crushing on the football field, huge jacked-up trucks that spin when making a turn on a rainy street (the car just ahead of me yesterday), supermarkets with thousands of items but nothing to eat, at least, immediately (like hot soup, or hearty home-made meals). But everything is forgiven when the light dims out, and the show starts: “Ladies and gentlemen, may you join me to welcome …..” (drum roll, and the Oscar goes to….). Every American an aspired American Idol.

All of  a  sudden, “Life is beautiful” again. America, forever young, full of energy and fun-loving . Young and old, everyone joins in this frame of mind: that everything that could be thought of can be done, and will be done. “Make the world your playground” says the early Ford ad.  James Dean’s red jacket. Rebel with or without a cause. Trading up and falling down. Everyone seems to move with herd instinct at shutter speed: whether to find a good deal on Black Friday or throw the beats on Mardi Gras. America never seems to miss a beat on what is new, what is hip and what is bleeding-edge (female race driver near-miss on speedway).

Yes, we are falling behind in airport infrastructure (no airport has comfortable seating, maybe except for Japan where our Stateless China Terminal man lingered for three months), but if you had seen a Vegas implosion ( Sands casino), you couldn’t help but “wow”, because in its place a few years later, you would find all these new and personalized establishments such as Wynn and Aria.

And there is a Statue of Liberty there as well at New York casino.

So I rest my case. Maybe it’s not the first time that there are two Statues of Liberty found in the US. New York and Vegas already beat us to the punch.

Now two more from Liberty Tax franchise that I can count.  At least, they haven’t become as trivialized as Santa.

Santa and Statue of Liberty both had their origins in Europe, dressed in costume and forever left an enduring mark on the  American culture.

Both welcome either kids or strangers and represent two iconic figures. From their points of view (chimney and Ellis Island), our problems seem small indeed.

Freedom from fear of persecution (including the belief that these myths are just “toys for tots”).

No wonder pundits keep saying there are only two uncontested truths: tax and death, in that order, unless the IRS failed to update its database.