Fearing for the Future of Local

‘Globalisation’ is a looming, powerful word. It trips off the tongue in plummy tones and an almost onomatopoeic way and immediately recalls images of tall glass buildings and stifling smog from industrial chimneys. I feel like I’m allergic to the word, almost.

Hong Kong from TST. Image courtesy of Snowboarder - thanks!

But put the word ‘community’ after the word ‘global’ and my muscles relax and I glaze over into a warm fuzzy daydream. I visualise thatched roof cottages next to grassy Hobbiton-esque burrows with round wooden doors, and the kind of organic ‘lifestyle’ corner shops you come across in Hackney Wick, London.

My definition of this word and these terms are most likely entirely different to yours. My concept of community and what is ‘local’ is completely different to yours. It is our unique and individual experiences which shape our ideas and learning.

So what is the future of local? That’s what InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts have partnered with TED and one of my heroes Daniel Raven-Ellison to ask and no, the answer isn’t so straight-forward (as the long thread of conversation and replies back up). People get passionate about this topic. People get profound. And that’s why I’m interested.

Global doesn’t have to be a beastly word though now, does it? One commentator spits, “Franchises will be everywhere and pollution too. In the end everywhere will be the same...” Very Orwellian.

I can’t say I agree. How can everywhere be the same? Climates, physical geography, cultures, and as a result, people, cuisines, society. Even I’ve changed, but over the years I feel that thanks to travel and technology, yes, my world has gotten that tiny smidge smaller. And that’s where I want to pick up the conversation.

I remember as a teenager how excited everyone got when my hometown of Carlisle opened its first branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was the new hangout and the only alternative to McDonalds (which is, like so primary school). So we all flocked to KFC and swapped our McNuggets for Hot Wings. To my teenage self, KFC represented the big city, America and bright lights and big brands – right there, all on my doorstep on a Saturday afternoon.

I learned in later years that KFC don’t source locally – when I moved to Nepal, I remember the uproar that was caused because my ‘Generation Self’ Nepali counterparts in their twenty-somethings found out that the only branch of KFC in Nepal air-freighted their frozen chicken in from Brazil. This was around the time that McDonalds started advertising the fact that they used ‘British’ chicken in their McChicken Sandwiches back at home.

Ronald never took Denny seriously enough.

My point? Well really it’s a point my brother made first when he was the tender age of nine and I was 12 – “Don’t you think the McDonald’s here in Hong Kong tastes better than the McDonalds back home Cindy?”

All this talk of globalisation and Starbucks and losing our cultural identities is missing the original point. The things that matter, the details, the salt and pepper of our universe, they’re all still unique.

To my brother, a Big Mac in Hong Kong was a rare treat, something he could have every day (and he did) every year and a half we visited our family. The Big Macs from the McDonalds Drive Thru back in Carlisle? They didn’t cut the mustard (I couldn’t resist).

More to the point, Denny’s Hong Kong Big Mac was a symbol of the exotic, of our childhood, of summers running through our grandma’s village. It was part of the bigger picture, it wasn’t the only picture.

The inherent fear is that the Coca Colas of this world can take over local culture now that our world has become so much smaller – but how could this ever affect something so intangible? To do so we’d have to carefully define what is and isn’t an affectation of culture – and who are we to say what a culture is and isn’t?

Sandy's centre of focus: does the coverage belittle all other natural disasters?

Photo courtesy of @ThomasKaplan

"Freeloaders engage," I read, "[New York Times] and [Wall Street Journal] drop their paywalls ahead of Hurricane Sandy."
"... The winds at maximum strength, the ocean whipped up into a storm..."
"... The biggest hurricane to strike... residents urged to stay away from windows..."
"Car alarms going off, flood water filling the streets."
If I hadn't read on, the scene being painted to me by the various members of the Twitterati could have been describing a natural disaster anywhere. The more I read however, the sooner I realised that people weren't treating and reacting to this like any "ordinary" natural disaster about to happen. No, this hurricane was about to hit New York, in the United States of America.
Since Sunday, I've been following Hurricane Sandy with more interest and fervour than, I must admit, the tsunami that hit Haiti at roughly the same time. Oh yeah, had you heard about that?
The beauty of having technology at your fingertips at the time of such a hideous occurrence is, of course, that you can follow it blow by blow, tweet by tweet, Photoshopped-pixel by pixel. 

Photo courtesy of Mashable

And I let my curiosity of the coverage Sandy was gathering engulf me the moment I read, "The New York Stock Exchange has announced it will close on Monday. This is the NYSE's first planned closure since 1985. It is not expected to reopen on Tuesday." Suddenly, this natural disaster was a first world problem.
I don't even remember where I read that sentence or if I'm paraphrasing it (most likely) but the message of it remains the same; Hurricane Sandy is a big deal, I processed, so big a deal that the President of the United States is cancelling his political tour of Florida literally days before he is going up for re-election. Even Mitt Romney stopped his tirade of hate against women who want free contraception for long enough to - well - talk about privatising the handling of natural disasters such as Sandy. Shit just got real.
But just as quickly as the hunger for more information on Frankenstorm struck me, a sheepish wave of guilt began to wash over me. I was sat in the comfort of my room gorging on biased coverage, photographs of the Statue of Liberty being taught the 'Gangnam Style' and tweets by people tweeting about why they couldn't tweet "any minute now" live from New York, while dozens of victims were rebuilding their lives in Jamaica and Haiti, which Sandy struck less thank a week ago.
Haiti's Civil Protection Office reported 52 deaths, and I had not read a single headline over the past week about it, yet before Hurricane Sandy had even touched the sides of the States, the country and the manpower and forward-thinking to protect its citizens was the only thing I could read about on the front page of everything.

This blogpost I read on Amnesty International's site sums up my feelings for those who have lost loved ones or indeed a huge chunk of their lives via the loss of their belongings in any one of the countries where Sandy has left her mark. While I can see how Hurricane Sandy quickly became a topic of sensationalism, I also don't 100 percent agree that it's wrong to be fascinated by the Christopher Nolan-esque image of an apocalyptic New York. Yes the 'Sandy Scoverage' is tasteless at times (see the London Evening Standard's 'Manhattan Submerged' story for further evidence) but should the world be stiff-upper-lipped about destruction because a country can afford to recover quicker?
The truth is nothing to do with how many column inches and tweets the United States gains over the Caribbean.  It's just that we've become too blasé about natural disasters and death. It's easy to let a sentence such as "Super Sandy claims 13 lives" glaze over you. It's much harder to actually stop and think about how many hundreds of lives that number of losses will ripple-effect.
I also think it's hugely admirable that Google are pulling together an alert system to help citizens and potential victims navigate their way towards evacuation points and services in an emergency. But I also see how the potential of an alert system such as this could help the millions of people in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania who now have mobile phones set up their business ventures and help drive their country's economic growth.
On another note, if the same number of people who have been tweeting about Hurricane Sandy were petweeting (petitioning via Twitter) about human trafficking, I'm pretty sure everyone in the world would know that human trafficking can happen literally on your doorstep and would want to do something about it.
So, like, not to be a killjoy or anything, but maybe now that I have your attention, take a couple of minutes a day, just like you have now, to find out about where else your attention might be needed.
Just a couple of minutes a day to re-focus your efforts and attention on an issue that matters to you,not necessarily a "charitable" venture even, might make you realise that life isn't all about death.

A woman from Leogane, Haiti makes her way home during the flooding. Photo courtesy of  The Australian.

Ideology is Bad for You

Who knows what's going on in Egypt right now? Anyone?
In a (very small and overly patronising) nutshell, from what I've gauged of the situation, Egypt is undergoing political transformation; this week the presidential elections will take place, and 50 million people in Egypt will be encouraged to vote. It's the first free election since Hosni Mubarek was ousted. He was Egypt's President for 29 years.

But that's not what I'm interested in today. I'm interested in the post-Mubarek development. Egypt entered into a recession in 2011 during the Arab spring according to The Guardian, and since then, it's been struggling to get back on track. Exports to the eurozone have dropped 2 percent, and the country is struggling. Over 20 percent of the country's population live off less than $2 US a day.


Enter the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). 

We provide project financing for banks, industries and businesses, both new ventures and investments in existing companies. We also work with publicly owned companies.

So... Can capitalism help those with no capital to begin with in developing countries? Do banks loan to people in these countries who have no collateral? Can privatisation really work?


Yes.


I've loaned through Kiva and worked with Shared Interest, but the EBRD is an entire bank founded on the same ethics and principles of these foundations (for want of a better word, please do correct me if I'm wrong).


What has this got to do with Egypt, you're asking. Well, this week, the EBRD's chief economist held meetings with the deputy governor of the Bank of Egypt to discuss lending through the private sector. 


How does it work? Again, in (a ridiculously teeny tiny) nutshell, essentially the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker are given loans by the EBRD to start businesses with very little interest. Oh, and they only help those who no one else will. Why? Because they will become the middle class eventually. So what? Having a middle class in a developing country with no democracy = democracy.


I appreciate that as a bank, the EBRD still runs off profits, but what's wrong with that? If you can be a business that can make a profit and mobilise an entire country towards liberalisation through privatisation (what a mouthful) why the hell not?


During my time as a Taylor Bennett Foundation intern, I met Jonathan Charles, the Director of Communications of this bank. As an avid supporter of the trade not aid approach, when he started to unfurl the workings of the EBRD to me, I listened attentively, taking everything in. And then I made a decision.


I was a recovering socialist, and the idea of a bank creating a new social class, was mind-blowing to me. I was impressed. 


I know I've not been to kind to bankers or banks in my past blog posts, but maybe it's time to start looking at the other end of the spectrum; maybe it was time to stop ranting at bankers and banks for the imperfections of my world... maybe it was time to reassess my ideologies.

Anyone for a cuppa?

Tea is a part of most households' daily routine. Especially in mine.

My day begins when my first cup of tea is in my hands. Whether it is when I get into the office ("Oh, are you putting the kettle on...?), or when I slump groggily into the kitchen and automatically reach up for the tea cupboard on a weekend, I genuinely do not remember a day in my adult life which has not began with a brew.

And it is easy to see why; tea is now a staple part of our diet. It has infiltrated our consciousness. It has formed, solidified,and bound friendships. It is physical, cultural, and mental. It is quintessentially British.

How did a tradition reserved for the far east become such an inherent part of our history?

The UK Tea Council tries to explain with a few facts:

* It brings people together. 80% of office workers claim that they found out more about what's going on over a cup of tea than in any other way

*By the mid-eighteenth century, tea had overtaken ale and gin as the drink of the masses to become Britain's most popular beverage.

The ever-growing importance of tea in an era when nostalgia is in (ref: Downton Abbey/Birdsong/designers at London Fashion Week showcasing their Autumn/WInter ranges) and vintage is cool, has led The Tea Council to hire PR agency Threepipe to promote the merits of tea amongst 20-25 year old females.

Ladies who lunch: Threepipe have been hired by The Tea Council to "make tea cool" amongst 20-25 year old females.

The agency has been hired to help "attract a young, social media-savvy audience" away from coffee and water, over a period of three years. 

I am personally, really looking forward to hunting down the tea pop-up shops "with a British fashion theme" which will hopefully be popping up in an area near me soon.

I'd like to take this opportunity too, to urge Threepipe not to forget the North when they plan these tea pop up shops - because everyone knows Northern girls love a good cup of tea. We'll bring the biscuits.

101 International Women's Days closer to equality?

Lady Godiva as depicted by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Collier (1898)

When Lady Godiva rode naked on horseback through Coventry during the 11th century in protest of her husband's taxes on the townsfolk, she probably had no idea that she delivered one of the greatest acts of feminism in history, to be celebrated 10 centuries later.



Congratulations women! We will officially be celebrating the 101st International Women's Day this Thursday, to mark the progress we've made over the years in securing the right to work, to vote, to an education, and the right to be simply treated as equal to men.


Joan of Arc, Hua Mulan, Simone de Beauvoir, Marie Curie, Mary Wollstonecraft, the Suffragette mum from Mary Poppins... the list goes on, yet if any of these women were still around (real or fictional) they would see that despite their efforts, equality for women still has a long way to go.


Last August, PR agency Kindred were hired to construct a campaign for the Chartered Management Institute (CMI)on the gender pay gap. Their results were shocking.

A man is still paid £10, 546 more than a woman for the same job. This is an average, according to PR Week. So this does not take into account anything above this level of discrepancy. In 2012.


I've never thought of myself as a feminist, as the word can be so loosely defined and loaded with various meanings, and it would suggest that I am a little bit Germaine Greer, which I guess I'm not. Having said this, I was brought up in a single parent family by my mother, who did a kick-ass job raising two kids and then went on to put them both through private education/higher education rather successfully, if I do dare to say so myself.


The idea of feminism then, I guess, has been playing on my mind. This time last year I was sat with women who had no idea that their survival instinct gave way to actions with huge connotations to the role of women in Nepal. These women became breadwinners and spokespeople in their communities when faced with adversity. These women were so strong, I never questioned for a moment that their gender might be an issue.


It's hard for me to explain to someone I meet now in the UK how  that tiny, rural, and mostly illiterate village in Nepal could teach some City CEOs and Directors a thing or two about equality and politics in the workplace. 


After I read the PR Week article, I asked myself what Rekha and Gita would think if a man in their village was paid twice the amount they were paid for a hand-reared piglet, just because he was a man.


I could imagine that the statement would be met with laughter, followed by anger, followed by action. In my head, I see the two women marching up to the imaginary buyer of the piglet, and asking for what is rightfully theirs.


Now wouldn't the world be a better place if all women could do exactly this, without the hypocrisy and hurdles presented to them each time they want to challenge their bosses for inequality in the workplace?


[Find out more about International Women's Day here, and join the likes of Annie Lennox and Emeli Sande at Southbank this Friday to celebrate equal rights.]

Pros and Cons of the Murdoch media empire

Advertising campaign for The Sun on Sunday

It's been a big week for News International, first the Sun on Sunday (SoS) is launched and @Rupert_Murdoch tweets "Amazing! Sun [on Sunday] confirmed sales of 3.260,000 copies", then in a shocking move, James Murdoch steps down as Chief Executive of News Corps, and is quoted as saying "You only need one Murdoch running the newspapers".
And it took the Murdoch's how long to realise this? Prior to the Leveson enquiry, the Murdoch empire was spreading like wildfire, worryingly continuing to strengthen their monopoly on worldwide media. This is the family, if one needs reminding, who shut down  The News of the World (NotW) without further thought for the livelihoods of their journalists in a bid to protect their image from further tainting. The plan backfired, when media picked up on the fact that the Sun on Sunday online domains had been mysteriously bought up, almost immediately after NotW was put out of business.
Yet communications and media experts are remaining positive about the big move. I'm trying to see if they have a point.
Thanks to the Leveson enquiry and Rebekah Brooks' horsegate, a) there won't be any more excuses for shoddy, illegal journalism and b) the Met will be think twice before they loan anything to a Murdoch associate. Neither of the two are bad results.
All eyes are on the SoS this weekend yet again, and Rupe  tweeted hopefully that "down fifteen percent [in sales] would be a great result".
Merely two weeks into the publishing of the Sunday title, I feel the good, the bad and the ugly of the launch are yet to be discovered in full. The SoS will have to tread carefully and undoubtedly need to overcompensate for its predecessor, the NotW's actions, but I'm acutely aware that it remains another mouthpiece for the Murdochs to spout their right wing ideologies. 
The major issue the SoS brings to the forefront of my mind is this; it's high time that newspapers had a government body monitoring its content, just like broadcast media has. 
Yes, it does distress and agitate me that a media mogul who thinks that a newspaper who runs anti-sex abortion headlines shouldn't also run gay marriage headlines as it confuses "old readers", remains in control of so much of the "News of the World" (pun intended).
At the risk of sounding like a fence-sitter, my mind is yet to be made up on the benefits society will reap from The Sun on Sunday's journalism.
Hmm, two minds indeed...

Credibility versus Cool at London Fashion Week

The Lunch bar at Michael van der Ham's show on Monday. Topshop sponsored the Billingsgate venue

My latte and "meringue, blood orange,[and] orange blossom cream" which were followed by a "ham hock and parsley pie". I did realise I ate my courses backwards, yes.

I think my sensitivity towards product placement is a little more exaggerated than the average person's. Even before I began working in PR, as a journalism graduate trying to make my way into the world of ethical fashion and fair trade writing, the little flashes of corporate branding would just niggle at me and flash up in my mind's eye at the most inopportune moments throughout my day. It sometimes happened after I watched an episode of X-Factor (those Nescafe mugs!).
When executed properly, product placement is a fantastic opportunity for brands to get their name and image out there without having to pay for advertising. Great news for PRs/PROs, as they like to embrace fun ways of improving an existing relationship between a consumer and a product. 
But what about when product placement goes wrong? An article by John Owens in PR Week made me wonder what the "right" kind of PR is.   
I had the chance to see first-hand on Monday when I went to London Fashion Week, and my hyper-sensitivity went into overdrive.
First I was handed an "I heart LFW" canvas bag with my floor plan and itinerary in... sponsored by the Mulberry Monster, and Vodafone. 
Both are credible companies, and in context of the situation, either cool in their own right (the 'Mulberry Monster' sounds cute doesn't it?) or cool by association for the right reasons (in Vodafone's case).
It was difficult to miss the 'Mayor of London' logos plastered all over the make-shift walls as you walked into Somerset House, an association which I personally have my reservations about, but makes complete sense. BoJo's team did a great job literally marrying fashion with politics.
I noticed throughout the day while I tweeted my excitement, that others were tweeting about theirs at LFW too. But they weren't getting all excited about Lady Gaga's 'Alejandro' sunglasses or the soundtrack to Sophie Hulme's salon show, they were saying their public Ps and Qs - to Land Rover and Mercedes Benz for chauffeuring them around LFW venues. Very clever guys, I see what you did there.
I am slightly upset that I missed "a pr effort to push cleaning products by scrubbing the catwalks with them as part of the show", which suffice to say is not credible, nor cool (apparently, who am I to judge?). Consumer brands were obviously falling over themselves to be associated with LFW, however tenuous or obvious the link.
"It's not about being cool, which is something transient. Credibility has depth," John Doe (PR agency) founder Rana Reeves told PR Week. 
Notable credible and cool collaborations occurred between Giles Deacon and Mercedes Benz, and Marios Schwab with American Express/W Hotels. I will also never forget the avant-garde Topshop-sponsored venue of Michael van der Ham's show at Billingsgate.
I curbed my cynicism early on and decided to just enjoy LFW for what it is; an amazing opportunity for new and existing British-trained designers to showcase a tiny nation's talent. 
I must confess that I'm not really sure what cool is, but if Reeves says that it's impermanent, then I'd be inclined to agree that credibility, could be the new cool.

Gaga's 'Alejandro' shades