cool global BIZ

From Africa to Asia, Colors (Colours) are Changing the Global Beauty Industry

 

 

"The State of the Global Beauty Industry: Entering a New Chapter"  by Euromonitor International, via YouTube.  Irina Barbalova, Euromonitor's head of cosmetics research, recapping her presentation made at In-Cosmetics 2010 in Paris, France.

 

MISS UNIVERSE CONTESTANTS might look like Barbie dolls in different shades. But beyond glitzy pageants, the colors (colours) of beauty are slowly but surely changing global consumer culture and the beauty industry, according to SkinInc.com ("Skin Color of the United States" by Daphne Kasriel-Alexander) and a new book by Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones (Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry).

Leading Global Economic Indicator: Donald Trump's Miss Universe 2011 Show

 

New economic indicator? Leila Lopes of Angola recently was crowned Miss Universe 2011 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Monday. Video courtesy of OfficialMissUniverse's channel on YouTube.

  

FORGET INTEREST RATES and investment flows. The best signpost of the global economy is Donald Trump's Miss Universe pageant. Look at the top finalists from Monday's show in Sao Paulo. A whole lot of women from emerging markets: Miss Brazil. Miss China. Miss Ukraine. Miss Philippines. Not an American or European in sight. The winner: Leila Lopes of Angola, Africa. "Every woman that competes is the embodiment of national pride," says Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, in the company's promo video. Aiya! Don't follow the money. Follow the beauty queens.

 

• Washington Post, "Angolan beauty queen wins Miss Universe: A primer on the African country" by Sarah Anne Hughes.


• People magazine, "5 Things to Know About Miss Universe Leila Lopes" by Liz Raftery.


• Global Post, "Angola Beauty Wins Miss Universe" by Freya Petersen.

 

CoolGlobalBiz, September 14, 2011

 

New Breed of Global Media: Al Jazeera English and Other Arab Media On the Rise

 

 

Al Jazeera English's newsroom in Doha, Qatar. Photo courtesy of CMDavid on Wikipedia.

 

CoolGlobalBiz, May 6, 2011

THE NEXT REVOLUTION will be found where the new breed of global media is the most active. And the epicenters are growing in the Second and Third Worlds, where modernization and raw forms of self-rule and semi-democratic governance will take shape with each non-violent protest. As the global economy spreads, it's only a matter of time before similar youthful and middle-class revolts surface in Asia, Russia and Latin America. 

In the current Columbia Journalism Review, Lawrence Pintak explores the role of the Al Jazeera media network and the Arab media in the recent Middle East uprisings:

 

Documentary Filmmakers Explore Global and Cultural Boundaries in New World

 

 

When China Met Africa by Marc and Nick Francis. Says one African official, laughing, to a Chinese multinational's project manager of a major road in Zambia: "Since you are not black, you will be easy to find." Video courtesy of the filmmakers, on YouTube.

 

CoolGlobalBiz, April 12, 2011

SO MANY FINE films, so little time. Documentary and indie filmmakers continue to take on urgent and volatile topics often ignored by commercial TV and Hollywood, and their work will grow in importance as globalization races onward. Here are video clips on acclaimed global documentaries that explore cultural fusion and the boundaries that divide us:  When China Met Africa, by filmmakers Marc and Nick Francis, the tale of a Chinese project manager working on Zambia's longest road . . . Crossing Borders, by Arnd Wachter, on the world travels of eight American and Moroccan students . . . And Wagah, by Supriyo Sen and Najaf Bilgrami, on the daily flag-lowering ceremony at the India-Pakistan border by proud, high-stepping guards of both nations.

 

 

 

Trailer for Crossing Borders, a feature documentary by Arnd Wachter and Crossing Borders Education. Narrator: "At a time of world tensions, four American and four Moroccan students will travel and live together . ..  sharing experiences . . . encountering the other ... and in the process, discovering themselves." Video courtesy of Arnd Watchter, on vimeo.

 

 

 

 

Filmmaker Supriyo Sen is recognized at the Berlin Film Festival 2009 for his acclaimed short documentary Wagah, on the flag-lowering ceremony on the India-Pakistan border. Video courtesy of supriyobubu's channel on YouTube.

 

 

"You Say You Want a Revolution / Well, You Know / We All Want to Change the World . . . . "

 

Foreign Policy's Middle East Channel blog, "Women and Egypt's Revolution" by Lauren E. Bohn and Sarah Lynch. Video clip courtesy of Foreign Policy.
 

CoolGlobalBiz, March 4, 2011

MORE MIDDLE-EAST watchers weigh in on the revolts and uprisings in the Arab world. Also, listen below to "Revolution," the rock classic by the Beatles:

 

Wadah Khanfar, director general of Al Jazeera, in Al Jazeera and the Washington Post: "Indeed, it should surprise no one that so many Western analysts, researchers, journalists and government experts failed to recognise the obvious signs of Arab youth movements that would soon erupt into revolutions . . . That failure has exposed a profound lack of understanding in the West of Arab reality."

• Aljazeera.net, "We Saw the Revolutions Coming" by Wadah Khanfar.

 

New York Times' Kristof Poses Most Important Question: Can the Arab World Embrace Democracy?

 

   

"The Other Side of the Fear is the Freedom" by jonycunha (Jonatas Cunha), under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Cunha is a professor and photographer in Brazil.

 

 

 

CoolGlobalBiz, February 27, 2011

POWERFUL OPINION PIECE this morning by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, posing the most basic and profound question of all regarding the Middle Eastern revolts: Can the Arab world embrace democracy? No truly modern and progressive society, no diverse and growing economy, will thrive over the long run without it. In "Unfit for Democracy?" Kristof writes:

 

"Is the Arab world unready for freedom? A crude stereotype lingers that some people —Arabs, Chinese and Africans — are incompatible with democracy. Many around the world fret that “people power” will likely result in Somalia-style chaos, Iraq-style civil war or Iran-style oppression . . . I’ve been humbled by the lionhearted men and women I’ve seen defying tear gas or bullets for freedom that we take for granted. How can we say that these people are unready for a democracy that they are prepared to die for?"

   

 

"The Genie is Out of the Bottle" -- Former German Vice-Chancellor Fischer on Middle East Revolutions

 

 

 

 

Egyptian activist and blogger Gigi Ibrahim. Photo by Al Jazeera English, under a Creative Commons license on flickr.

  

CoolGlobalBiz, February 26, 2011

EARLY COMMENTARY ON the populist revolts seemed timid. Now more big guns are letting loose with stronger opinions on geopolitics in the Middle East and Africa.  In Project Syndicate, former German vice chancellor Joschka Fischer predicts the uprisings will lead to greater globalization and "the profound transformation and modernization of entire societies and economies."

(Photo, above) Former German Vice-Chancellor Joschka Fischer. Photo credit: Andrzej Barabasz in Wikimedia Commons.
 

A Megatrend That's Not Going Away: Boston Consulting Group's "Global Challengers 2011"

 

  

"Giants" by Wolfgang Staudt, under a Creative Commons license on flickr. Staudt is a Germany-based photographer at wolfgangstaudt.de.

 

CoolGlobalBiz, Jan. 18, 2011

LIKE A VAST wave, you could see this business megatrend rising a decade or so ago. More revenues, more investments, more employees,  more R&D, more everything coming from fast-growing businesses overseas. Now, that trend -- the emergence of new companies in rapidly developing economies -- clearly is a powerful pillar of the global economy that will reshape the world, says the Boston Consulting Group, which has been studying global companies for many years.

 

She's a BRIC House - Global Power BRIC Keeps Getting Stronger

 

BRIC leaders in 2010.  Photo by Jose Cruz of Agencia Brasil, from Wikimedia Commons.

 

CoolGlobalBiz, Jan. 3, 2011

FASTER THAN YOU can say mighty mighty, that BRIC house keeps rising as a global powerhouse.  In little-noticed news over Christmas, Chinese President Hu Jintao invited South African President Jacob Zuma to meet with BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) leaders in Beijing in 2011.  According to Bloomberg, Zuma said that South Africa will be "a good gateway for the BRIC countries.  While we may have a small population . . . we speak for Africa as a whole."

  

New Year, New Dawn, 2011

  

"A New Decade" by Matthew Stewart, a photographer based in Brisbane, Australia.  Clicked past thousands of fireworks photos to find this fresh take on the New Year.  Under a Creative Commons license on flickr.

 

CoolGlobalBiz, Dec. 31, 2010

 

"While angels sing with pious mirth / A glad new year to all the earth."
                           - Martin Luther, "Vom Himmel Hoch." 
 

"I have had my invitation to this world's festival, and thus my life has been blessed."
                           - Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali.
 

"A journey of a thousand li begins right where one stands, even with the very first step."
                           - Tao Te Ching (Chapter 64).

 
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
                           - Thomas Paine, Common Sense.
 

 

• Associated Press, "Millions gather worldwide to ring in new year." 
• BBC, "Hogmanay crowds see in new year."
• CNN, "Latin America in 2011: Year of the female politician" by Rafael Romo.
• AFP, "Fireworks over Kremlin as Moscow joins global New Year party."
• AFP, "Hu pledges a peaceful, cooperative China in 2011."
• Vanguard, "The African challenge in 2011" by Owei Lakemfa.