Global influence: The Arab Spring

Today, I’m going to do a special post about a topic that doesn’t really have to do with the main point of my blog, which is fashion, but it is a very important topic related with our actual world: Internet and digital tools

It is a video about the Arab Spring that, as you can see deeper in the video, it refers to a number of protests, revolutions and citizen’s uprisings in the Arab World during the last two years. These protests were a result of several demographic factors such as hard living conditions, unemployment and corrupt and authoritarian regimes that started to change into repressive governments that did not allow any political opposition, following by lack of freedom, militarization of the countries and lack of infrastructures.
In the video I tried to show, specially, how these social mobilizations have spread to other countries through the Internet as a way of fighting the repression and censorship.
To get in depth here are some webpages where you can find some more information about the Arab Spring:
 
→ http://www.presseurop.eu/es/content/topic/509301-europa-y-la-primavera-arabe

→ http://pressenza.com/npermalink/how-to-cook-a-peaceful-revolutionx-the-arab-springx-m15-and-occupy-wall-street

Also, here is the link to the original video "How Facebook changed the world. The Arab Spring": 
→ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnPR90dJ3Gk

I hope you found it useful and interesting, enjoy it ;)

Video song: Jai ho- A R Rahman

Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding: Be part of the change

In the last few years, the concepts 'the commons', 'crowdsourcing' and 'crowdfunding' have adquired a new meaning thanks to the social media. On the Internet we can find many pages with the objective of funding money in order to support different projects that want to change our world for better. On this Prezi presentation is explained the meanings of these 3 words and some examples of crowdfunding platforms and some projects that have used crowdfunding or crowdsourcing. Do not hesitate to visist their webpages and join them if you want:

PRACTICE 10: on Prezi

Also, I want to share some information about an NGO called Hazlo Posible (http://www.hazloposible.org/). This organization tries to motivate the social interaction and participation in solidarity causes using the new technologies.
If you are also interested, you should take a look to its webpage http://microdonaciones.hazloposible.org/, where you can get information about their different projects of crowdsourcing in which you are able to colaborate.
Also, you can follow this initiative through twitter: @Hazloposible

I hope you found it usefull and interesting & be part of the change ;)

Last campaign of Marni marked by anorexia

One more time the catwalk is affected by anorexia. This time, the controversy goes around the extreme slimness of the French model Aymeline Valade, who is 27 years old and she has been chosen to launch the collaboration between H&M and Marni as the image of the new campaign.

Aymeline Valade for H&M and Marni.
The strongest protests have taken place in the United Kingdom where the people have attacked the Italian firm because of the presentation of this thin woman that can promote anorexia.

Furthermore, the make-up chosen by the firm for its advertisements accentuate the paleness and slimness of the model, specially her rings under her eyes. The model appears in the Marni for H&M advertisements in the U.S., although there hasn’t been any furor about her weight over here. Apart from that, nowadays, is one of the models that most catwalks opens around the world.

 























Because of the polemic, the Swedish firm, H&M, has been forced to deny strongly the accusations saying that H&M has an advertising policy in which they distance themselves of alcohol and drugs and they reject working with models that do not reach the minimum weight. And they apologize themselves of having disturb the public with these images that have been perceived unethical and non-esthetic. They will take these comments into consideration for future campaigns.

The BOBs Awards

This post is a class project that my class mate, Paula Lacruz, http://fromthemetropolis.blogspot.com.es/, and I did about the BOBs Deutsche Welle Blog Awards.

The BOBs, the Best Of the Blogs Awards, are intenational awards of weblogs. These awards were created in 2004 by the German radio-television channel, the Deutsche Welle.

The Deutsche Welle is the German outside station, and its main function is the representation of Germany as a state of free right and democratic in Europe and also support and show respect to other cultures. In order to develop its objective the station offers journalistic contents in 30 different languages through the radio, television and Internet.

The BOBs gives awards to webpages writen in 11 different languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, German, English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese and Russian.
The blogs chosen by the Deutsche Welle have to be focused on the freedom of speech and the encouragement of the open debate on the Internet. These kind of awards search to show the wide variety of blogs on the Internet, the new different meanings of communication and the international debate through this media.

There are 17 categories of blogs, in order to vote them: 6 main categories and 11 language categories.

The most voted blogs in 2012 are sigarchi.net/blog/ ,a very common blog among the Persian community, wirten by Arash Sigarchi, who has been arrested several times because of the contents of his blog. Also jou3an.wordpress.com ,a blog about many issues related to the life in countries as Syria or Egypt.
Www.chronikler.com  and paulocoelhoblog.com/ are the most voted blogs on the English language category.

There is a Reporters Without Borders Award to award the best journalistic blog. The most voted blog on this category, until now, is a chinese blog based on Beijing and criticize the gobernment of his country, woeser.middle-way.net/ .

Click on this twitter account @dw_thebobs, to know more about these awards and also discuss about the Best Of the Blogs Awars of 2012 ussing the hashtag #TheBOBs12.

Le livre de la mode Parisienne

What is the Parisian’s trick to be stylish and smart wearing any kind of garment? Going out wearing the first cloths you get from the wardrobe, without combing your hair and looking perfectly fashionable is something that only a few achieve.

 Clemence Poesy

Audrey Tautau

 Everybody believes that the style is something you are born with and, the more you try to imitate those who have it, the less stylish you are.  Fortunately, Inès de la Fressange, disagrees and claims that the style is an art that is difficult to control but is not a genetic gift, we can learn to get it.
Inès de la Fressange is a French woman who became the first model to sign a exclusive contract with a haute couture house, Channel, with the fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld, in 1980. Since that moment she had become his muse. Nowadays, she is the owner of a chain of some little boutiques, fashion designer and consultant for Jean-Paul Gaultier.
 

Inès dela Fressange

She has wrote a book called Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Inès de la Fressange, in which she gives priceless fashion tips and show her style secrets. For instance, how to get an “effortless chic” appearance or how to dress for a special event. According to Inès, the main secret of the stylish Parisian girls is not to seem that you have been in front of the mirror during 3 hours.
Apart from her stylish tips she recomend her readers some of her favorites boutiques, restaurants and hotels in Paris.

So... what are you waiting for? Go on and get the style "Parisian chic". ;)

Loewe in the spotlight

Since the last Wednesday, 14^th March, Loewe has stir up the media and the social networks with its new campaign Oro Collection 2012, a video recording that has turned into a polemic issue around the world. The traditional Spanish firm has tried to get closer to a young and modern audience presenting this campaign for its new bag collection, in which 12 young Spanish artists talk about what Loewe means to them and about other topics. This has irritated the public, who expressed their disagreement about this advertisement through social networks as Twitter under the hastag #LOEWE.

The luxury firms, among which we find Loewe, are focused on attract a certain audience, despite of the fact that they tried to make the public believe that everyone can buy this kind of products. That was the main error of the firm with this advertisement: showing a group of young people who pretend to be modern and “anti-posh”, but who can afford a Loewe bag and much more things, whereas the young “real” moderns, nowadays, are the main victims of the economic crisis and cannot pay for luxurious garments.
The firm has achieved its goal, at that time everybody was talking about Loewe, in a good or a bad sense, but, at what price? Loewe has tried to appeal a new public with this campaign, but the critics, the opinions and the jokes about it can cause the loss of traditional buyers who do not see them reflected on the new values that the firm showed on the advertisement.