I know I took a looooong break and I think it has been about two weeks since I wrote anything new here on my blog BUT I have a lot to post and will never forget what I need to write as I'm having a checklist for my blog!
So where have I been and what was I doing? I was busy with my graduation celebration last week and it was one of the most momentous events in my life! We had to travel far and get things ready for graduation and travelling back to where I live has been very time consuming and tiring! Nevertheless, it was fun and enjoyable!
I have promised +BV Bharati that I will be writing a post soon about why writing and exposing truths can be deadly and I haven't forgotten my promise yet. In fact, it is one of the posts I am having on my checklist. Now that I am back, I will get that done soon.
On the other hand, guess what I found? I saw a story that was covered in the front page of the local newspaper! It is about child marriage in Malaysia and I was completely shocked with the appalling number of child marriages happening in Malaysia. I never knew this issue could be so bad here and I will cover this issues under Child Marriage chapter of my book.
You will be so surprised to know what is happening across the world when you start researching facts and I think I love what I am doing for my book!
I'll be back real soon with consistent posts!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I can't help it but to story you this agonizing act from Unilever's AXE. But before that, let me tell you what made me 'like' AXE Malaysia's page first and foremost. Well, AXE Malaysia had a contest to search for the next Malaysian astronaut and a Malaysian Indian lady was among the top 5 selected to contest for the final round. When I got to know about this, I was so excited and I told my mom and we were showing our support to the girl by voting for her every hour. The contest is now over and the official winner will be announced coming 24th. I spread the news to some of my friends on Facebook and guess what, not many actually replied or showed support. This is pretty much why I feel like not having Facebook because people are there just to stalk you and gossip behind your back but acts like they never knew you when you approach them on FB. Okay, let's just stop ranting about social media, which is not very social actually.
AXE is a brand by Unilever for men's hair care and body products. My question is, what are those women doing on AXE's advertisement when it is a product meant men. Of course they have one or two products for women too, but when it comes to men body spray, are we supposed to see men in the advertisement, aren't we? AXE has been using women, or I will say, exploiting women to promote their product and this has caused an uproar among the AXE Malaysia's Facebook page because we anticipating updates about the competition and all we get is their sexist,cheap promotional methods on Facebook page. I was one of the first ones to spark a debate about this on their page (hahaha :P). I saw many comments following that trashing AXE Malaysia. If you need to know what I'm talking about exactly, you need to go their page via this link and see for yourself.
Is That Picture Necessary?
By having videos and pictures like that, it simply sends a message that men has no brains and nothing much to attract women, so use good fragrances like this to get ladies. It doesn't matter how bad you smell from within, all you have to make sure is to smell good with AXE.
It also sends a message that indicates women are cheap and can be attracted with good fragrances. Watch this video.
Reaction From Potential Customers
What they expect out of their 'sexy' advert - Men and women going crazy about their products and keep giving them business. What is actually happening - They are losing more and more customers and probably because of people like me who is contributing to their loss, it will be even worse because due to the competition, many people all around the world are watching this page closely and their promotional method is suicidal now. People would be attracted to products and companies that have value and do good. Of course, in the business world, nothing is transparent but avoiding efforts to objectify women will save them in the long run.
Now, on the other hand, I think women who model for this product knowing that they are being objectified, are just plain dumb and have no social responsibilities at all. What are those employees for Unilever doing? Well, it is so sad to think we have to forgo social responsibilities at work because we are there just to earn money for living and not to argue for our values that we uphold.
I'm not saying women should be covered all the time or should not be given the choice to dress up. Bikini and modesty has very little correlation because we won't be able to change a man's mind to respect women just by changing our clothes. No, it is not that simple. Bikini is just a swimwear. You wear nightgown when you at bed and you do not roam around the city with that because that would be inappropriate. One should know his or her limits and behave accordingly. You will just know if what you are wearing is appropriate or not. What has to be changed is not bikinis but misusing them for advertisement purpose in a way that causes harm for women. Of course, for lingerie advertisements it will be fine.
Last but not least, if I ever have a boyfriend using AXE, I would be 'welcoming' him home with an axe. With that being said, ladies, you know what to do now ;)
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
It has been a week now since I last blogged. Today has been a fantastic day so far. I made it to the third round of interview after being interviewed by the director of GreenEnergy Worldwide for Malaysia. It feels good because I think it gives me a chance to be in an industry providing green energy solutions and eventually breaking the dependency on fossil fuel. I have also received a surprise e-mail today so it has been a great day so far and I'm thankful for that.
So getting back to the post today, I'm sure many of you are well-informed about the winner of Miss America 2013. Nina Davuluri was crowned as Miss America and she is the first Miss America from Indian descent. She is also the Miss New York 2013. America being one of the world's largest melting pot where people of different races and cultures embrace America as their home today took the world by surprise when some people made racist remarks on Twitter following her victory. What really amuses me is the fact that people have been calling her a Muslim and linking her with Al-Qaeda. Some people made themselves clowns by saying that she should have been chosen as Miss Africa. I think they must have missed their Geography lessons back in school, poor kids!
This social backlash reminded me about the popular TV show, Celebrity Big Brother where we had a participant, the late Jade Goody with two others bullying the well-known actress in India, Shilpa Shetty for being an Indian. I think, generally when you cross your own border, you are a refugee and you just don't belong to where you are fully because people do not welcome ''foreigners'' wholeheartedly.
Is it a crime being born with a dark complexion? What it really takes for a woman to become Miss America? Being blonde and white? I don't understand how people could choose Obama as their president and still be prejudicial. I am not referring to those who voted for Obama and choose to side Nina. I'm sure at least one out of those people who attacked Nina WOULD HAVE voted for Obama but when it comes an American Indian winning the pageant, they can't take it. I'm keen to know the probability of those people voting for a man different in race and heritage as their president. I think people react differently when it comes people who are successful and people who are about to unleash their talent. Before you actually achieve something solid and widely accepted, people would judge you based on colour, background and etc and discourage you every way they could. I don't understand how they could welcome Indians to come and work for Bill Gates but still deny their rights to contest in a beauty pageant. Those who made the ugly comments certainly forgot the fact that their place of birth is a colourful land with people from different roots contributing to its success today. In most countries today, majority of the citizens are not the native people. My ancestors were from India and they were brought to Malaysia during the British occupation. Our real native people are the Orang Asli which literally means "the native people" and America is no exception too.
As an approved contributor for Global Voices, (I haven't contributed anything YET, and I have posts up there as drafts because I thought it will be good to observe what others post and how to protect myself if someone from my ''awesome'' government were to read my posts and accuse me of being a ''threat'' to the national harmony and security. Malaysia is getting funnier day by day so it is good to know how to save my ass before doing something) I observed a post from an Indian citizen and I thought she has pointed out great issues and Tweets from other netizens.
I think Americans are way better because we will not see Nina Davuluri being crowned in the pageant if the organizers or judges were racists. It is just a part of the society that has a problem seeing an American-Indian winning the competition, may be because their favourite contestants lose the game! I think the issue is less severe in America than it is in India.
While reading the post from Global Voices, I realised that if Nina's parents chose to stay in India and raise their kids in India, Nina's chances of being crowned would have been a dream still. You can see the comments in the snapshot below and I feel it is true because we Indians(referring to the race) do not embrace our own people as we worship fair-skinned ladies and men more.
Global Voices
At least, Nina prides herself in becoming Miss New York and Miss America but what do we see in the Indian film industry today? Actress Nandita Das is a dark-skinned, beautiful young lady and I have always admired her so much. Her message for this year's Women's Day is "Stay UNfair, Stay Beautiful". She and her career has been affected due to her dark complexion and she campaigns for the movement called Dark Is Beautiful. You can read about her further at her blog (and let me know if you think she is beautiful ;))
We all have our own issues to deal with and raising awareness is not just about me blogging about this and you reading but also about correcting the way people think and behave around you and making a change. Do your part in educating the society. By writing this, I will never be able to reach out to those who made insulting comments about Nina but if we continue to pass the message around, hopefully we can see gradual changes.
Good night world!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I got the inspiration to come up with this post after reading +Katie Cross 's recent post about weird words we find in English or weird alteration we make to an already existing word in English to be precise. I'm very excited to introduce Manglish to you guys! Malaysia is a multicultural nation where we have three different races living together just like Mauritius and some other countries. We have Indians, Chinese and Malays here and the multicultural society exists today because of British occupation about a century back where they bring labour forces from India and China. Our forefathers are basically from India and China. What happens when a group of multiracial society attempts to speak in English?
Watch the brief video to here how Malaysians speak in English(Manglish) and how we all speak English in the proper way. It's not that Malaysians learn the wrong way to speak English. We know the proper way to speak English but it is just a Malaysian-thing that you can't seem to avoid at all. ;)
If you are wondering what the lah doing at the end of every sentences, here is some explanation that can be helpful but I'm sure you won't be understanding the rule of using it the correct way. (Yes, we have rule to use it and if you attempt to use it without knowing how it works, you will seem to be a real clown as I'm very sure it will sound awkward and funny!! LOL)
some helpful explanation
While writing this, I remembered about the famous TV show "Mind Your Language" back in the 70's and 80's. I think it is one of the most wonderful TV show I have ever watched and I still watch some of the series today! We used to crack jokes when I was back in the university as my Plant Design group comprised of two Chinese boys, one Indian (myself) and two Malays. The Malay girl is my good friend and her boyfriend is from Yemen. I can still remember how hilarious it was when the Yemeni guy was arguing with my Chinese friend on the way he uses English.
Another video that explains Manglish from a foreigners point of view!!! :)
On another note, I thought of sharing with you about a sentence that shows unity among the three different races here which I came across lately. "Macha, you want to makan here or tapau?" which literally means "Buddy, you want to eat here or pack the food?" It's a combination of English, Tamil, Malay and Chinese.
I welcome you thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
Today, my mother and I went to the local supermarket nearby to buy some groceries. We headed to the food department where they sell sweets and other junk food. I was looking for something to eat and I thought it was good to buy some snacks. I got some Cloud Nine chocolates while my mother was searching for sweets and that's when I saw Hudson's sweets. I have never really seen Hudson's sweets in packets before so I picked one of it up and flipped the packet! Guess what I saw?!
Hudson's #1
"When your little son asks you to show him how to make his own babies... Hudson's soothes life's little irritation."
Hudson's #2
" When you wife asks you if she looks fat in her new dress... Hudson's soothes life's little irritations "
Hudson's #3
"When your boss asks your honest opinion about his new hairstyle... Hudson's soothes life's little irritations"
Hudson's at the Store
Hudson's and its nonsense!
Hudson's, you are not soothing life's little irritations, you are inducing frustration and irritations!
I just can't understand what makes Hudson's feel so cool about its promotion or marketing method by incorporating such rubbish at its packaging. Obviously, this is not the only product that promotes wrong messages and supports movements that don't benefit mankind. I feel one of ways to stop discrimination is by boycotting products and businesses. That would create stress in their business and eventually force them to do stop monopolizing the market with marketing that has negative impacts on people.
I stopped buying Gardenia bread we have over here when I knew it was taken over forcefully by some people using political influence. I will include Hudson's now in the list!
Updates: I sent them a feedback. Let's see what will their response be.
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I was unable to post recently as we were out for a short visit to my aunt's place where things changed the moment we arrived. I was handling job applications and I was called for a few interviews at once and all of them were scheduled just a few days after one another. I'm still thinking about a job offer I got today. I thought I should give serious consideration for job-hunting and I think I am already doing that.
Official Contributor of GV
On another hand, I was taken by surprise when I got an e-mail from Global Voices. I remember I applied to become one of the contributors long time ago and my application was accepted. They made me an official Author page and I can now write any issues related to Malaysia quoting from our bloggers and social media posts. Guess what, tomorrow is our National Day so it will be a good day to start. I wanted to highlight events in Malaysia for a larger audience and with this opportunity, I can now lend Malaysia a louder voice through my posts. Of course, I should be careful doing that too as the government doesn't seem to like people exercising freedom of speech nowadays. But, who cares because we need more citizens to voice out.
Today was another terrible day as my uncle passed away. Coincidentally, his daughter was supposed to get engaged today and it has been called off. Death teaches a lot of lessons. It shows how we should be humane enough to forgive the one who has died and I learnt this through my mum today. Death reveals the ugly faces of people and reunites souls in the name of humanity. It depends on what we choose to see.
It's is getting late here. I will get back to my usual routine soon.
I welcome you thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
