Hard to Make a Stand?

This weekend's New York Times and other papers reported of an argument between White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and rockstar Sheryl Crow. According to the Times, Ms Crow had approached Mr Rove at a social dinner to discuss global warming. Crow had touched Rove's arm to talk to him about climate change, and Rove had spat back ("Don't touch me"); the argument had escalated from there.

Karl Rove got very mad at Sheryl Crow this weekend, but was Mr Rove perhaps just envious of Ms Crow's stage presence?

Exhibit A: Here's Ms Crow performing Hard to Make a Stand in summer 2006.
We got loud guitars and big suspicions,
Great big guns and small ambitions,
And we still argue over who is God
And I say, "Hey there Miscreation,
Bring a flower, time is wasting"
"Hey there Miscreation,
We all need a celebration"
And it's hard to make a stand

Exhibit B: Mr Rove recently attended the Radio-Television Correspondents Association dinner. Mr Rove joined a group of comedians in rapping on stage.

That was truly terrible. But wait... Mr Rove's performance is strangely reminiscent of a few previous hair-raising moments in home video history. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer loved his company a few years ago, and he really out-of-breath loved it.

Ballmer is really, really frightening. But Karl Rove may also have been inspired by the Bank of America guys. We've seen this before, and it's almost too much to bear.

Now, I'm a non-native speaker, so when a White House spokesperson called Ms Crow's meeting with Karl Rove "Hollywood histrionics" I, for one, actually had to check the dictionary for "histrionics." It means "theatrical performance." Ms Crow's moment with Mr Rove was "a theatrical performance"? Compared to Mr Rove's look-I-can-laugh-at-myself rap? No comment. Men -- can anyone imagine a woman doing anything like Rove/Ballmer/BofA? Nope. No way. Never. If a woman does this, she won't be the President's right-hand woman or the CEO of the largest software company in the world. She's probably taken to - that's right, people - rehab.

Exhibit C: Britney Spears... Britney Spears went bald/ballistic/ballmer earlier this spring, and was admitted to a place called Promises.

Okay, so Sheryl Crow herself may be the first to admit it's hard to make a climate-saving stand at a White House Correspondents' Association dinner, but for what it's worth, in this video below, rocking with Mick Jagger, even Sheryl Crow's jeans make a greater political stand than Rove/Ballmer/BofA probably ever could ("we want to be rockstars" -- no, guys, but you have a lot in common in the silliness department!!!)

(This entry owes YouTube a huge debt of gratitude... Thank yous go out to all those YouTube posters out there posting these great clips...)

Swindle

Readers on a New York Times forum are referring others to the The Great Global Warming Swindle for credible (some argue "unassailable") evidence against human-induced global warming. The Swindle movie is so conveniently available on YouTube that literally hundreds of thousands of people have watched it over the past three weeks.

I posted quotes on the forum from the Guardian and the Independent to discredit Swindle. It was pretty much the same stuff posted here on our blog a few weeks ago. If you'd like to read the forum, my comments are under my first name; someone also responded to me (they got my name wrong and spelled it Kristeen, but just ctrl-F that and my name and there's my slice of the debate if you're interested.)

A forum like that shows the depth of doubt and breadth of opinion out there. I felt it was imperative to comment publicly on this film. People with no scientific background are trying to debate the larger issues by arguing over details that most of us simply cannot understand without extensive science education. The details don't change the big picture: we are putting gas in the atmosphere, hence it warms. Period. Many are using a film like Swindle to infer that human-induced climate change is merely a liberal hoax. All I'm saying is, I'm not an atmospheric scientist (either); sometimes you just have to trust the people who are. These are people who are working for a fraction of what they'd get in industry, telling us this thing is real. Endless debating among lay people without PhDs is what keeps the masses from taking action. Why are we willing to believe marketing and all kinds of hype, but unwilling to believe scientists?

Once the real evidence arrives, it may be too late. This view finds support in Oxford Today, which in its latest issue published an article about green energy:

Likewise, [Good Energy CEO Juliet] Davenport agrees that saving the planet is more about people than science. 'I do believe that humanity is incredibly innovative and incredibly powerful. But for governments to take action there has to be real public awareness of the issue', she says. 'I do believe that we will come up with a way of solving this problem. But to get to that critical tipping-point of public awareness, I fear there may have to be casualties first.'

Ben Franklin said it best: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Happy Easter / Passover everyone. More blog entries from me next week.

Music Industry 101: Environmental Impact Assessment of "My Humps"

This is a case study of the societal effects of My Humps by the Black Eyed Peas. (The lyrics can be found here.) The album was produced by A&M Records in the US and Interscope in the UK, both subsidiaries of Universal Music Group, the largest business group and family of record labels in the industry, with approximately $5 billion revenues in fiscal 2005. Vivendi is Universal's parent company, with $20 billion revenues in 2006. The song was once called "one of the most embarrassing rap performances of the new millennium" by music critic John Bush. Much of the criticism stems from repetitive lyrics and exploitation of the female body. Regardless, this video won MTV's best hip hop video of the year award in 2006. (Wikipedia)


This would all seem too funny, if only it wasn't for...

Here's a father-daughter moment featuring My Humps.

I don't claim to understand half of these lyrics any more than these kids do. Here's a little boy's response (look for his sister trying to access the get-away car.)

Here's what happens when boys grow up a little. (Apologies in advance if it's crass; please don't waste five minutes to finish this whole clip. I didn't either and those would be five minutes of your life you can never get back.)

Here's what happens when girls grow up a little (where's their dad?)

Then the little boys and little girls grow up into men and women who try to find love and live happily ever after. We all wonder why it's so hard and would even like to believe it's because we're from altogether different planets. Bah humbug. I mean, bah hump bug.

Then it becomes an international phenomenon. This is in Serbian. Serbian!

Finally someone with a brain and some power in the industry says, I've had enough of this ----, and ... oh Alanis, you rock. You're the best. The best!

ps. Here's an article from the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics: "Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth."

Dare You to Move for these gorgeous sunny days.

Diamonds Are Forever

In response to Johanna's post Tuesday, here's Kanye West addressing the same issue.

Wal-Mart Class Action Suit

According to Helsingin Sanomat, Wal-Mart faces a class action suit for gender discrimination. An American court accepted on Tuesday a historical suit involving millions of women who have worked for Wal-Mart after 1998. The suit alleges that Wal-Mart paid women lower wages and limited women's opportunities to advance into managerial positions.

In the clip, the CEO of Wal-Mart talks about sustainability issues at Wal-Mart. The interviewer is Charlie Rose, who doesn't exactly take a stand but leaves it up to the viewer to make up their own mind. More Charlie Rose interviews here; some of us know him as one of the most well regarded US talkshow hosts (he works for PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service.) GoogleVideo offers hour-long interviews with Al Gore, Noam Chomsky, artist Shirin Neshat (whose photos were up at EMMA in Espoo last fall!) and others on issues like climate change, alternative energy and human rights.



Here "High Cost of Low Price" producer-director Robert Greenwald and a Wal-Mart representative talk about the firm's labor practices.

Climate Report Out; New Miss Finland Candidates Out and About

The IPCC report is out and the original can be found here. It is a 21-page summary of the full report. Two more reports are coming out in April and May, respectively; they will include a list of recommendations for action. We know the local basics: recycle your biodegradables, drive less, fly less, switch off lights etc.

On a completely different note, for those who are into gender issues, this may make you smile. Or laugh. The Miss Finland pageant is in full swing, and pageants, though seemingly innocent, glam and old school, are actually a business, sometimes big business. For example, Donald Trump owns pageant franchises in the USA.

u u t i s t u l v a

Miss Suomi 2007 -kilpailun osallistujien uimapukukuvaus on medialle maksullista, selviää Finnartist Oy:n lähettämästä lehdistökutsusta. ...
uutistulva.nettitieto.fi/ - 80k - 31. tammikuu 2007 -

Finnartist, the company that produces the event and has done so for 45 years, has actually agreed, either knowingly or unknowingly, to a very funky new version of the so-called swimsuit competition; photos can be seen here.

Iltasanomat calls this new type of underwear competition (whatever happened to swimsuit competitions?) the height of "tastelessness."

Did I miss something?

How tasteful is it, really, to employ young women to parade on stage -- or on the steps of some building in Loviisa -- in their underwear? (I wonder what compensation the firm or organizer pays to these individuals, if any.) Hope those shopping malls are well heated. Below is a more old-style example of what the tour entails for these women.



This isn't actually a new debate, globally speaking, but what is happening with the Miss Finland tour is definitely a new take on the subject. Pageants as an institution can be viewed from a number of angles. The most dystopian suggests that they objectify women and teach girls to self objectify. Girls -- and boys -- learn that the fastest way for young women to win over the hearts and minds of the people (and the occasional ice hockey player) is to look pretty and say you support world peace. In underwear.

Finnartist and tour organizer Marjo Sjöroos have just committed to the most socially responsible thing they possibly could by allowing this new twist on a very dated pattern. Well done. Looking forward to the repercussions.

One

Bank of America celebrated its merger with credit card company MBNA in Manhattan late last year. To enjoy a video from what is presumably their closing event, click on the arrow below.

Before watching the clip, you might want to check out "The ONE Campaign" at one.org, led by U2's frontman Bono and named after the original song. The ONE Campaign is actually a charity effort to fight AIDS, starvation and extreme poverty.



ps. Bono is also involved in the corporate world through a stake in Elevation Partners, a venture capital business. I don't know how that is connected to this, but it just came to mind. In the name of fairness, transparency, and shades of gray.