sensitive mind and sensitive soul

Social sharing is caring. Or is it?

2011-06-09T08:40:00.000+04:00

Social media feels to me like it's allowed us all to become 'cultural curators'. We siphon the best websites to visit, articles and books to read, games to play, destinations to travel to, places to be at etc etc, and some people out there are actually interested in our opinions and recommendations.

So yes there is a 'sharing is caring' component.

But there is also a 'look at me' component, with the rush to share things first.

I wonder if there has ever been a psychoanalysis of the type of person to use social media. Are they more likely to be really 'social' or an introvert? Are they more likely to enjoy a conversation, or just like to sit quietly? Are they more likely to talk or listen.

So many questions, so many answers.

Einstein's view on Zionism.

2011-03-15T14:17:00.001+04:00

"Einstein was moved by the idea that the jewish people would be reunited with the conditions of its old glory and creativity, and establish a kind of cultural and spiritual center in Palestine, but with the condition that Zionism must understand its duty to come to terms with its arab environment, and must not enter the land of Israel in a kind of colonial, assertive mood." Source: Albert Einstein, How I see the world (part 5 of 6).

"If we dont find a way of honest cooperation and dealings with the arabs, then we have not learnt anything during our 2000 years of suffering, and deserve any fate that will hit us" Einstein.

Natural signs

2011-03-15T14:05:00.003+04:00

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better" Einstein.

Male creativity.

2011-03-07T13:46:00.001+04:00

Why is there a general belief that boys are less creative than girls, and men are less 'in tune with their emotional side' when throughout history males have been successful artists, poets, storytellers, musicians, playwrights, designers, architects? And have written and designed pieces that have touched our heart and emotions?

I think society and the media has exaggerated this lack of creativity and emotion on the part of men. They have drawn their conclusions from the poor male role models in the world today, and from many institutions which remain archaic and highly male oriented, and from the mostly male dominated corporate world which, at it's worst, is unequal and untransparent, and encourages a 'might is right' attitude.

So men begin to act the way they are stereotyped to be acting. And the situation is passed from father to son.

Males need a back-to-basics revolution. Men need to be encouraged to be their best. And guys need to spend more time with their families and children and have time to themselves. And positive male role models need to be reinforced.

Jowad Husseiny [Husseini], Anna Grace [Vester]. Creative Commons. Portraits of the Vester and Whiting families and other members of the American Colony in Jerusalem between 1905-1913.

Nobility, virtue and goodness.

2010-12-05T22:57:00.005+04:00

‎"I was only sent to perfect noble ways," said the Beloved Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). His referring to "noble ways" (or noble character) is a recognition that there is nobility, virtue, and good in people, customs, cultures, & societies. Islam comes to build upon and fulfill human, social, & spiritual potential, not to negate & destroy. [Imam Ahmad - Musnad]

Connecting with people

2010-11-07T10:39:00.006+04:00

When is the last time you were intrigued? surprised? delighted? Read this little story below. It's a nice one.

"For me, it was a wonderful experience I had the other week at a friend's going-away party. It was at a neighborhood bar where bike racks protected locked bikes outside and patio lights warmed the atmosphere as the sun set and the smiles came out.

When the time came to close out my tab, the bartender quickly produced a receipt and returned my card. I noticed a line I'd never seen before on a receipt. The tip line read: "A little love..."

Not only did this positively disrupt my thought process, but it sort of solidified my emotional connection to the evening and to the bar. I'd had a great time! Why not share that love with others? And so I left a bigger tip than I might have if these three little words had not been printed as a reminder of the waitstaff and my experience.

Everyone says "It's the little things." If something so simple can have such a positive impact on a customer's experience, then why do so many merchants fail to take advantage of it?"

-Shopper culture

-Contributed by Erin Middleton

-Published on Tuesday, August 31, 2010

________________

I think this story is lovely. Because it brings out the human behind each transaction we make. But how many of us, and how many corporations are unable to harness the true power of our emotions and our humanity?

We connect with people and brands better when we know them, know their story, and realise how we affect their life.

How evil triumphs.

2010-10-20T19:34:00.001+04:00

“All that is required for the triumph of evil, is for good men to remain silent.”

Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri.

A refreshed consumer-product relationship

2010-10-19T12:27:00.001+04:00

People have grown up immersed in consumer culture - they 'get' it. But as savvy, streetwise consumers, they are bored, if not downright distrustful of the conventional consumer-producer relationship, and now look for brands and products that are more authentic, more human, and quite simply more mature.

Source: trendwatching sept 2010.

The Lorax

2010-10-04T17:08:00.001+04:00

"I am the Lorax who speaks for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please" Dr Seuss, The Lorax.

So much to learn from this childrens book. The moral of the story is so simple even 4 year olds get it.

Our message

2010-09-26T09:40:00.006+04:00

Image source: Message in a bottle, by Meppol.

Each soul is born carrying a message for humanity. The way we live our life is how our message is communicated.

Definition of Sustainability and why it's so important.

2010-09-22T21:34:00.005+04:00

A great little animation explaining sustainability. Created for RealEyes by Igloo Animations.

Some things just come naturally

2010-09-22T09:07:00.002+04:00

I think too many things these days - particularly in the affluent western world - have become sanitised and scripted. Particulalry where kids are involved. Everything has to be pre-arranged and pre-medidated. If you're taking the kids swimming, they've got to be learning their strokes. If they have some 'free time' (after music and dance and language and ballet lessons that is!) it has to be 'structured play'.

And same goes for adults too. It's no longer just a movie, but now we must know who the director and producers are and their other list of movies and achievements.

It's like everyone has gone out and got 'qualifications' on how to live.

I just want to cook. play. watch. read.

At least one other person agrees with me. Here is what Nigella Lawson had to say:

"Today's parents, she suggested, mistakenly believed that they had to make cooking "all fun and recreational...I think there was a different view of childhood then - we were expected to be useful to our parents...Nowadays, I think parents sometimes feel they have to get into children's television presenter mode and make cooking all fun and recreational, whereas we were just required to help get a meal on the table...it just felt normal. I didn't realise I was learning to cook."

A few years ago, before we all turned amatuer photographers, chefs, pre-school teachers we just did things without deliberating and procrastinating over them. And I think this makes people more creative, imaginative because they are willing to experiment and just enjoy life instead of needing to keep best practice in mind.

The nobility of humankind.

2010-09-03T13:43:00.001+04:00

Think for a moment.

God almighty created humankind from clay, and then breathed life into him.

And when this human was created, Allah almighty ordered the angels to bow down to this creation. And so, the angels, in all their glory and light, bowed down to the human, except Satin, who in his arrogance objected, claiming that he, created from fire was superior to humanity created from clay.

So, if you think about it, human kind is divine. Loved by Allah, cherished by the Angels, the envy of Satin.

Do our actions measure up to this love? Do we roam the earth with this sense of nobility instilled in us? Do we devote ourselves to spirituality and love and compassion, or do we follow the temptations of the envious and mischievous Satin?

Have we awoken to the spirit within humanity, instilled with a sense of nobilty?

KR Connect: 2010: Nothing Is Impossible

2010-01-18T06:26:00.000+04:00

KR Connect: 2010: Nothing Is Impossible

The power to acquire.

2007-07-16T15:45:00.000+04:00

The following if an except from John Berger's, Ways of Seeing, put out by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1972. It is considered an early and very accessable work of postmodernism.

What a great way to simply, ruthlessly describe what marketers and advertisers do every day. That is, we sell glamour, or the hope of glamour, and promise people that by using our products or services their lives will become richer, and they will become more enviable.
____________________

In the cities in which we live, all of us see hundreds of publicity images every day of our lives. No other kind of image confronts us so frequently. In no other form of society in history has there been such a concentration of images, such a density of visual messages.

One may remember or forget these messages but briefly one takes them in, and for a moment they stimulate the imagination by way of either memory or expectation. The publicity image belongs to the moment. We see it as we turn a page, as we turn a corner, as a vehicle passes us. Or we see it on a television screen while waiting for the commercial break to end. Publicity images also belong to the moment in the sense that they must be continually renewed and made up-to-date. Yet they never speak of the present. Often they refer to the past and always they speak of the future.

We are now so accustomed to being addressed by these images that we scarcely notice their total impact. A person may notice a particular image or piece of information because it corresponds to some particular interest he has. But we accept the total system of publicity images as we accept an element of climate. For example, the fact that these images belong to the moment but speak of the future produces a strange effect which has become so familiar that we scarcely notice it. Usually it is we who pass the image - walking, travelling, turning a page; on the TV screen it is somewhat different but even then we are theoretically the active agent - we can look away, turn down the sound, make some coffee. Yet despite this, one has the impression that publicity images are continually passing us, like express trains on their way to some distant terminus. We are static; they are dynamic - until the newspaper is thrown away, the television program continues or the paster is posted over.

Publicity is usually explained and justified as a competitive medium which ultimately benefits the public (the consumer) and the most efficient manufacturers - and thus the national economy. It is closely related to certain ideas about freedom: freedom of choice for the purchaser: freedom of enterprise for the manufacturer. The great hoardings and the publicity neons of the cities of capitalism are the immediate visible sign of "The Free World." For many in Eastern Europe such images in the West sum up what they in the East lack. Publicity, it is thought, offers a free choice.

It is true that in publicity one brand of manufacture, one firm, competes with another; but it is also true that every publicity image confirms and enhances every other. Publicity is not merely an assembly of competing messages: it is a language in itself which is always being used to make the same general proposal. Within publicity, choices are offered between this cream and that cream, that car and this car, but publicity as a system only makes a single proposal.

It proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more. This more, it proposes, will make us in some way richer - even though we will be poorer by having spent our money.

Publicity persuades us of such a transformation by showing us people who have apparently been transformed and are, as a result, enviable. The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour. And publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour.

It is important here not to confuse publicity with the pleasure or benefits to be enjoyed from the things it advertises. Publicity is effective precisely because it feeds upon the real. Clothes, food, cars, cosmetics, baths, sunshine are real things to be enjoyed in themselves. Publicity begins by working on a natural appetite for pleasure. But it cannot offer the real object of pleasure and there is no convincing substitute for a pleasure in that pleasure's own terms. The more convincingly publicity conveys the pleasure of bathing in a warm, distant sea, the more the spectator-buyer will become aware that he is hundreds of miles away from that sea and the more remote the chance of bathing in it will seem to him. This is why publicity can never really afford to be about the product or opportunity it is proposing to the buyer who is not yet enjoying it. Publicity is never a celebration of a pleasure-in-itself. Publicity is always about the future buyer. It offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell. The image then makes him envious of himself as he might be. Yet what makes this self-which-he-might-be enviable? The envy of other. Publicity is about social relations, not objects. Its promise is not of pleasure, but of happiness: happiness as judged from the outside by others. The happiness of being envied is glamour.

Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you. You are observed with interest but you do not observe with interest - if you do, you will become less enviable. In this respect the envied are like bureaucrats; the more impersonal they are, the greater the illusion (for themselves and for others) of their power. The power of the glamorous resides in their supposed happiness: the power of the bureaucrat in his supposed authority. It is this which explains the absent, unfocused look of so many glamour images. The look out over the looks of envy which sustain them.

The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself. One could put this another way: the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of the product.

Publicity is the culture of the consumer society. It propagates through images that society's belief in itself. There are several reasons why these images use the language of oil painting.

Oil painting, before it was anything else, was a celebration of private property. As an art-form it derived from the principle that you are what you have. It is a mistake to think of publicity supplanting the visual art of post-Renaissance Europe; it is the last moribund form of that art.

Publicity is, in essence, nostalgic. It has to sell the past to the future. It cannot itself supply the standards of its own claims. And so all its references to quality are bound to be retrospective and traditional. It would lack both confidence and credibility if it used a strictly contemporary language.

Publicity needs to turn to its own advantage the traditional education of the average spectator-buyer. What he has learnt at school of history, mythology, poetry can be used in the manufacturing of glamour. Cigars can be sold in the name of a King, underwear in connection with the Sphinx, a new car by reference to the status of a country house. In the language of oil painting these vague historical or poetic references are always present. The fact that they are imprecise and ultimately meaningless is an advantage: they should not be understandable, they should merely be reminiscent of cultural lessons half-learnt. Publicity makes all history mythical, but to do so effectively it needs a visual language with historical dimensions.

Lastly, a technical development made it easy to translate the language of oil painting into publicity cliches. This was the invention, about fifteen years ago, of cheap color photography. Such photography can reproduce the color and texture and tangibility of objects as only oil paint had been able to do before. Color photography is to the spectator-buyer what oil paint was to the spectator-owner. Both media use similar, highly tactile means to play upon the spectator's sense of acquiring the real thing which the image shows. In both cases his feeling that he can almost touch what is in the image reminds him how he might or does possess the real thing.

Yet, despite this continuity of language, the function of publicity is very different from that of the oil painting. The spectator-buyer stands in a very different relation to the world from the spectator-owner.

The oil painting showed what its owner was already enjoying among his possessions and his way of life. It consolidated his own sense of his own value. It enhanced his view of himself as he already was. It began with facts, the facts of his life. The paintings embellished the interior in which he actually lived.

The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. Not with the way of life of society, but with his own within it. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better. It offers him an improved alternative to what he is.

The oil painting was addressed to those who made money out of the market. Publicity is addressed to those who constitute the market, to the spectator-buyer who is also the consumer-producer from whom profits are made twice over - as worker and then as buyer. The only places relatively free of publicity are the quarters of the very rich; their money is theirs to keep.

All publicity works upon anxiety. The sum of everything is money, to get money is to overcome anxiety. Alternatively the anxiety on which publicity plays is the fear that having nothing you will be nothing. Money is life. Not in the sense that without money you starve. Not in the sense that capital gives one class power over the entire lives of another class. But in the sense that money is the token of, and the key to, every human capacity. The power to spend money is the power to live. According to the legends of publicity, those who lack the power to spend money become literally faceless. Those who have the power become loveable.

Publicity increasingly uses sexuality to sell any product or service. But this sexuality is never free in itself; it is a symbol of something presumed to be larger than it: the good life in which you can buy whatever you want. To be able to buy is the same thing as being sexually desirable; occasionally this is the explicit message of publicity, usually it is the implicit message, i.e. if you are able to buy this product you will be lovable. If you cannot buy it, you will be less lovable.

For publicity the present is by definition insufficient. The oil painting was thought of as a permanent record. One of the pleasures a painting gave to its owner was the thought that it would convey the image of his present to the future of his descendants. Thus the oil painting was naturally painted in the present tense. The painter painted what was before him, either in reality or in imagination. The publicity image which is ephemeral uses only the future tense. With this you WILL become desirable. In these surroundings all your relationships WILL become happy and radiant.

Publicity principally addressed to the working class tends to promise a personal transformation through the function of the particular product it is selling (Cinderella); middle-class publicity promises a transformation of relationships through a general atmosphere created by an ensemble of products (The Enchanted Palace).

Publicity speaks in the future tense and yet the achievement of this future is endlessly deferred. How then does publicity remain credible - or credible enough to exert the influence it does? It remains credible because the truthfulness of publicity is judged, not by the real fulfillment of its promises, but by the relevance of its fantasies to those of the spectator-buyer. Its essential application is not to reality but to day-dreams.

To understand this better me must go back to the notion of glamour. Glamour is a modern invention. In the heyday of the oil painting it did not exist. Ideas of grace, elegance, authority amounted to something apparently similar but fundamentally different. Mrs. Siddons as seen by Gainsborough is not glamorous, because she is not presented as enviable and therefore happy. She may be seen as wealthy, beautiful, talented, lucky. But her qualities are her own and have been recognized as such. What she is does not entirely depend upon others' envy - which is how, for example, Andy Warhol presents Marilyn Monroe.

Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion. The industrial society which has moved towards democracy and then stopped half way is the ideal society for generating such an emotion. The pursuit of individual happiness has been acknowledged as a universal right. Yet the existing social conditions make the individual feel powerless. He lives in the contradiction between what he is and what he would like to be. Either he then becomes fully conscious of the contradiction and its causes, and so joins the political struggle for a full democracy which entails, amongst other thing, the overthrow of capitalism; or else he lives, continually subject to an envy which, compounded with his sense of powerlessness, dissolves into recurrent day-dreams.

It is this which makes it possible to understand why publicity remains credible. The gap between what publicity actually offers and the future it promises, corresponds with the gap between what the spectator-buyer feels himself to be and what he would like to be. The two gaps become one; and instead of the single gap being bridged by action or lived experience, it is filled with glamorous day-dreams. The process is often reinforced by working conditions. The interminable present of mean- ingless working hours is "balanced" by a dreamt future in which imaginary activity replaces the passivity of the moment. In his or her day-dreams the passive worker becomes the active consumer. The working self envies the consuming self.

No two dreams are the same. Some are instantaneous, others prolonged, The dream is always personal to the dreamer. Publicity does not manufacture the dream. All that it does is to propose to each one of us that we are not yet enviable - yet could be.

Publicity has another important social function. The fact that this function has not been planned as a purpose by those who make and use publicity in no way lessens its significance. Publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy. The choice of what one eats (or wears or drives) takes the place of significant political choice. Publicity helps to mask and compensate for all that is undemocratic within society. And it also masks what is happening in the rest of the world. Publicity adds up to a kind of philosophical system. It explains everything in its own terms. It interprets the world.

The entire world becomes a setting for the fulfillment of publicity's promise of the good life. The world smiles at us. It offers itself to us. And because everywhere is imagined as offering itself to us, everywhere is more or less the same. The contrast between publicity's interpretation of the world and the world's actual condition is a very stark one, and this sometimes becomes evident in the color magazines which deal with news stories. Overleaf is the contents page of such a magazine. The sock of such contrasts is considerable: not only because of the coexistence of the two worlds shown, but also because of the cynicism of the culture which shows them one above the other. It can be argues that the juxtaposition of images was not planned. Nevertheless the text, the photographs taken in Pakistan, the photographs taken for the advertisements, the editing of the magazine, the layout of the publicity, the printing of both, the fact that advertiser's pages and news pages cannot be co-ordinated - all these are produced by the same culture.

It is not, however, the moral shock of the contrast which needs emphasizing. Advertisers themselves can take account of the shock. The Advertisers Weekly (3 March 1972) reports that some publicity firms, now aware of the commercial danger of such unfortunate juxtapositions in new magazines, are deciding to use less brash, more somber images, often in black and white rather than color. What we need to realize is what such contrasts reveal about the nature of publicity.

Publicity is essentially eventless. It extends just as far as nothing else is happening. For publicity all real events are exceptional and happen only to strangers. In the BanglaDesh photographs, the events were tragic and distant. But the contrast would have been no less stark if they had been events near at hand in Derry or Birmingham. Nor is the contrast necessarily dependent upon the events being tragic. If they are tragic, their tragedy alerts our moral sense to the contrast. Yet if the events were joyous and if they were photographed in a direct and unstereotyped way the contrast would be just as great.

Publicity, situated in a future continually deferred, excludes the present and so eliminates all becoming, all development. Experience is impossible within it. All that happens, happens outside it. The fact that publicity is eventless would be immediately obvious if it did not use a language which makes of tangibility an event in itself. Everything publicity shows is there awaiting acquisition. The act of acquiring has taken the place of all other actions, the sense of having has obliterated all other senses.

Publicity exerts an enormous influence and is a political phenomenon of great importance. But its offer is as narrow as its references are wide. It recognizes nothing except the power to acquire. All other human faculties or needs are made subsidiary to this power. All hopes are gathered together, made homogeneous, simplified, so that they become the intense yet vague, magical yet repeatable promise offered in every purchase. No other kind of hope or satisfaction or pleasure can any longer be envisaged within the culture of capitalism.

Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream.

Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation. Today in the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable.

Inside the vending machine.

2007-07-10T10:11:00.000+04:00

This six-minute long animated ‘New World of Coca-Cola’ documentary is from Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam.

You may have seen the 30 second ad on television some time ago. But now W+K Amsterdam have come up with the idea of taking you into a behind-the-scenes animated 'documentary' about the Happiness Factory, where a film crew interviews the workers going about their business.

For this film, real people working at Coca-Cola were interviewed and their responses placed in the mouth of the animated characters of the Happiness Factory.

It’s a great company manifesto.

The inspiration behind this may have been W. Heath Robinson (1872-1944) best known for his drawings of eccentric machines, such as this one.

The break up.

2007-07-09T17:03:00.000+04:00

A simple little drama which is a way of explaining to clients (I think "advertiser" here means client, not ad agency) that they should understand their relationships with their customers.

One of the problems in the whole area of discussing this is the over-use of metaphors that people then start treating too seriously. People don't have relationships with brands, they have relationships with people. A brand satisfies a materialistic craving for image or identity.

Nevertheless, a brand which is generous with its offering, which stays innovative, which understands its role in peoples lives, and what problems it helps to solve and what dreams it helps fulfill is stronger than a brand that propels promotions, brochures and other consumer contacts mindlessly.

Feel better by giving.

2007-07-04T11:53:00.000+04:00

Neuroscientists at the National Institue of Health at Bethesda have found that the act of being generous activates a part of the brain that also lights up in response to food and sex, implying that we have a natural tendancy to be nice to people.

Altruistic people enjoy a longer life, better health and are generally happier with their lot in life says Dr Stephen Post in his book 'Why good things happen to good people'.

Beauty in life.

2007-06-28T17:07:00.000+04:00

If we look around us we will see things of beauty. And surely that is the aim in life – to see beauty and create beauty?

Think different.

2007-06-28T16:26:00.000+04:00

A classic piece of communication which pre-empted its time.

Aspiration

2007-06-27T10:15:00.000+04:00

A while ago, Michael Kinsley wrote that Jewish Americans envied Israelis for living out history in a way that made the comfort and security of life in New York or Los Angeles seem jejune.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft, "The Big Kibbutz", New York Times, March 2, 1997

What a wonderful insight. I think this feeling is legitimate for many emmigrants and even for others who have tried to escape hardships in other areas of life (work, family struggles) in search for the comfort and security of another sanctuary.

Can we be at fault for aspiring? Perhaps its a personal burden we place on ourselves.

JC Penney

2007-06-25T14:37:00.000+04:00

A great strategy brought to life with touching creative. Wonderful work from Saatchi & Saatchi New York.

ShiFt happens.

2007-06-13T14:21:00.000+04:00

A great video on how our world is changing through time.

It shows that the world around us is changing faster than we can research it, and write books about it. And unfortunately faster than many of our clients are reacting.

There is now a digital almost as big as the 'real' world (if not bigger) and unless governments and corporations tap into that world they will be left (are already being left) far far behind.

And finally, good music really does a lot to any presentation, slideshow, manifesto, ad, movie...

Source: Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization and The Information Age.

Music Credits: (1992) "The Last of the Mohicans" off the soundtrack. Song is 'Elk Hunt/The Kiss', which appears at the end of the film during the cliff scene.

Winds of change.

2007-06-06T14:45:00.000+04:00

Service.

2007-05-31T12:07:00.000+04:00

"What gift do you think a good servant has, that separates them from the others?
It's the gift of anticipation.
And I'm a good servant.
I'm better than good. I'm the best.
I'm the perfect servant.
I know when they'll be hungry, and the food is ready.
I know when they'll be tired, and the bed is turned down.
I know it before they know it themselves."

One of Helen Mirren's last speeches in "Gosford Park".

This quote is courtesy of my Creative Director, Ed Jones. And I agree that it typifies what any great client liason officer should be whether it is at a hotel, restaurant, retail outlet, advertising agency...you get the drift.

How many experiences like this have we had? And do we think we can live up to this challenge?

The Beatles, on LOVE.

2007-05-14T12:41:00.000+04:00

"In The End": the final words, on the final track, of the final Beatles album...

"And, in the end...
the love you take...
is equal to the love you make".

Genius.

Delusions of grandeur.

2007-04-16T17:50:00.000+04:00

Yesterday I was in a mundane, mediocre meeting aimed at 'uncovering consumer insights', like we were such revolutionaries. Honestly, can we get REAL! Isn't that so passe? Surely people don't sit around a table and uncover insights anymore! That was fresh about 20 years ago! And if they do, they certianly don't end up with anything fresh or interesting...(but that's a different story)...

Anyway, at different periods in time when we were attempting to develop a profile of 'lower socio economic' segments all the smart cookies who attempted to appear sensitive as they were happily and superficially recounting the hardships of this simple life (ie no TV, irregular dental check-ups, low education, more traditional village lifestyle) recounted variations of the following thoughts:

"I feel so bad, it makes them sound so unsophisticated"; "I don't mean to sound disrespectful but...(insert fact about the target)" ; "I don't mean to be rude but...(insert fact about the target)"; "It sounds so harsh but...(insert fact about the target)".

The fact is, this is the reality of the way of life of the people in the target audience - even though you may not like it or agree with it. So, describing this reality is not disrespectful unless one has already concluded his /her own way of life is better.

And, it seems, the particpants in my group had already passed a judgement upon the people in our target market - they had already deemed their lives simple, less advanced and unworthy. In contrast, their own lives were more worthy, sophisticated, more interesting thus higher up on the social heirarchy.

To me, this is naive and immature, and disrespectful. There is no reason to apologise for appearing disrespectful unless one had already internally acknowledged others inferiority.

We need to be comfortable with differences. We should be able to analyse people in different situations without hiding behind caveats and pity and misunderstanding and personal predujices.

Congeniality, community, conviviality and affinity.

2007-04-11T17:19:00.000+04:00

I was wondering why some of the most primitive villages are happier than some of the most advanced cities? And why in times of crisis we often see the best of human nature? And why an agency does its best work during pitch time?

I think the answer lies in connectedness and synchronisity.

I think ultimately, what drives human beings is a need for love and connectedness. Even if we wish to stand out as being 'unique' and 'different' we still aspire to a certain status or prestige which can only be endowed upon us by 'the group'. Hence, whether we directly seek affiliation, or whether we seek individuality, we need a group dynamic.

It is in this group dynamic that we achieve the best of humanity . When we collude and collaborate and work together...even debate together, we achieve a more fulfilling, honest and satisfying state of being.

The End.

Individuality.

2007-04-11T17:11:00.000+04:00

You can't bottle magic. And you can't reproduce it. You need to find your own way. A new way.

Starbucks.

2007-03-31T00:33:00.000+04:00

I loathe Starbucks. I really do. For me it is the epitome of corporatisation. Like many people I think it is mundane and commerical. I would much prefer to sit in an authentic, rustic or at least unique espresso bar rather than one which is rolled out identically across the world, selling mass produced coffee.

But, the point of this blog is to discuss two points:

1. That stories and myths are so important to building a brand.
2. A 'brand experience' and brand story, must be a natural and truthful part of a brand. This ensures it will be credible and believable and, that it can be sustained.

Starbucks' success has been a result of point number one. It was always going to be a mass market brand, so the stories it wrote only had to be believed by the mass market. They didn't need to believed by the people who prefer authentic, unique experiences.

And, any dent in this success will be a result of point number two.

Here is an excerpt from a BusinessWeek article tittle 'Saving Starbucks' soul'.

"If you find yourself at Starbucks in the next few weeks, letting a Dulce de Leche Latte slide over your taste buds, you might wonder how this drink came to be. It's a tale worth hearing. On the surface it's a story about how the Starbucks marketing machine conjures and sells café romance to millions of people around the world. On a deeper level it's a story about how a company, along with its messianic leader, is struggling to hold on to its soul....

...The Valentine's Day memo, which leaked to the Web, cut to the heart of what he sees as the company's dilemma. "We have had to make a series of decisions," Schultz wrote, "that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and what some might call the commoditization of our brand."

Connections.

2007-03-30T16:19:00.000+04:00

The web is linking people and connecting ideas, establishing a vivid 4th dimension.

In this 4D world, people have access and a wide perspective. This creates an organic link to other people, other interests and information that helps design ideas.

You can watch a fascinating example of how digital media has helped us be more connected here.

An idea is just an idea.

2007-03-01T16:05:00.000+04:00

We all have ideas, some are better than others, but the BEST ideas are those that happen. Otherwise, an idea is just an idea, and what use is an idea if it stays in your head, or in your heart?

'Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.' Victor Hugo

The materialistic world we live in.

2007-02-27T16:21:00.000+04:00

I think these lyrics are a good reflection of the shallow societies we live in, societies which connect success to material wealth and result in short term satisfaction at the expense of long term meaning and contentment.

Ka-Ching!

We live in a greedy little world
that teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly
then turn around and spend it foolishly

We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it's shoppin' every Sunday at the mall

All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store

Can you hear it ring
It makes you wanna sing
It's such a beautiful thing--Ka-ching!
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You'll live like a king
With lots of money and things

When you're broke go and get a loan
Take out another mortgage on your home
Consolidate so you can afford
To go and spend some more when
you get bored.

Source: Depeche Mode.

Juice: Food, Energy, Design

2007-02-22T10:09:00.000+04:00

WHY IS FOOD AND ENERGY AN ISSUE?

Global food systems are not sustainable. Industrialised food consumes ten times more energy in production and distribution than enters our bodies as nutrition. In 'developed' countries, the food consumption of a single family generates eight tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.

People in industrialised countries - that probably includes you and me - eat between six and seven kilogrammes of food additives every year.

This madness is enabled by non renewable fossil fuel. But what to do? 'Doors 9' breaks the food systems issue into bite-sized design chunks. “If food production efficiency is measured by the ratio between the amount of energy required to produce a given amount of food, and the energy congtained in that food, then industrial agriculture is by far the least efficient form of food production ever practised. From farm to plate, depending on the degree to which it has been processed, a typical food item may embody input energy between four and several hundred times its food energy”. Fact: In the USA, food traves an average oif 1,300 miles from farm to plate.

[Richard Heinberg, The Party’s Over: Oil, War, And the Fate of Industrial Societies. Clairview, 2005].

Paradigm shift

2007-02-21T11:14:00.000+04:00

People's wholesale adoption of a language, culture or ideology has negative ramifications on an individuals' own abilities, personal development and wellbeing. The entire worlds' ability to innovate through a combustion of uniquely different ideas that spark new developments is limited.

The homogenisation of the world through a dominance of certain values and cultures has reached the extent that if one does not subscribe to these value systems they are considered illiterate, uneducated and don't have a future.

This 'with us' or 'against us' attitude will make the world a much less interesting place to live in.

We need to start thinking of our differences in terms of assets instead of liabilities.

Rather than confining everyone to the same ideology and thinking patterns, encouraging differences in thinking, beliefs, experiences and communication allows new ideas to flourish if these differences co-exist in harmony and equality.

This point of view was inspired by a Gulfnews article on the decline of native languages. Interviews were conducted with Dr Fatima Badri, English and Linguistics professor at the American University of Sharjah and Journalist Muna Bu Samra who also ran in the UAE's recent Federal National Council elections.

Zaha Hadid

2007-02-15T15:06:00.000+04:00

Futuristic designs of Zaha Hadid for The Performing Arts Centre, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
http://www.zaha-hadid.com

Hotel Le A

2007-01-23T16:25:00.000+04:00

I stayed at an uber stylish hotel in Paris, a much better insight into the beauty of french design than the nearby Champs Elysees which seems to have lost all its past grandeur.

As you enter the minimalist reception, your eyes are drawn to the dramatic canvas paintings which hang on the wall. The recycled timber flooring compliments the deep-purple and chocolate coloured couches in the lounge area which give it a warm, retro feel. The centrepiece of the lounge area is a bookcase of design and art books which set the tone for this design driven boutique hotel. Just behind the lounge, a glass ceiling bathes the cafe/bar area with generous amounts of natural light.

At dusk, homemade cakes and a selection of teas are served in the lobby, encouraging guests to relax and enjoy the ambiance. A nice touch which adds to the hotel's charm and hospitality.

Status lifestyle

2007-01-13T11:58:00.000+04:00

Here’s something trend watchers, CMOs and other business professionals should be able to agree on: in the end, when dealing with (and selling to) people, everything always comes back to status. In a traditional consumer society, he or she who consumes the most, the best, the coolest, the most expensive, the scarcest, or the most popular goods, will typically also ‘gain’ the most status.

However, expect 2007 to be the year in which many brands realize (if not grudgingly accept) that the ‘old’, mass-era status symbols, from the Audi Q7 to the De Beers Radiance collection, are no longer every consumers’ wet dream. After all, as mature consumer societies are increasingly dominated by (physical) abundance, by saturation, by experiences, by virtual worlds, by individualism, by participation, by feelings of guilt and concern about the side-effects of unbridled consumption, status is to be had in many more ways than leading a somewhat dated lifestyle centered on hoarding as many branded, luxury goods as possible.

So in 2007, keep an eye out for:

TRANSIENT LIFESTYLES

Attractive to consumers driven by experiences instead of the fixed, by entertainment, by discovery, by fighting boredom, who increasingly live a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and possessions.

We dubbed these consumers TRANSUMERS in our November 2006 briefing, and there will be many more of them in 2007. The implications? An obsession with the here and now, an ever-shorter satisfaction span, and a lust to collect as many experiences and stories as possible, is undermining the perceived value (and thus status) of fixed goods and services.

PARTICIPATIVE LIFESTYLES

Especially for younger consumers, participation is the new consumption. For these creatives, status comes from finding an appreciative audience (in much the same way as brands operate). No wonder that it's becoming increasingly important to hone one's creative skills. Status symbols, make way for STATUS SKILLS? Please re-read our October 2006 briefing on this topic, which contains plenty of examples of brands already serving this new market. Oh, and here's a recent spotting that further illustrates the concept: Nespresso’s AAA Campus. What's going to be your participation strategy for 2007?

CONNECTING LIFESTYLES

In a post-material world, all that’s left to covet is…. other people? From networking sites to buddy lists to meetup.org to a boom in members-only clubs, social status 2.0 is all about who you connect to and who wants to connect to you, tribal-style.

CONNECTING LIFESTYLES is actually a subset of ONLINE LIFESTYLES, which encompasses everything from status gained from the number of views for one’s photos on Flickr, the real estate one owns in Second Life, to the good looks (and outfit) of one’s avatar. For hands-on ideas, check out our YOUNIVERSAL BRANDING briefing, or, if you own a copy of our 2007 Trend Report, re-read the section on UBER OTHERS.

ECO-LIFESTYLES

With the environment finally on the agenda of most powers that be, and millions of consumers now actively trying to greenify their lives, status from leading an eco-responsible lifestyle is both more readily available, and increasing in value. A substantial subset of consumers is already bestowing recognition and praise on Prius drivers while scorning SUV owners, and this will only accelerate as design-minded and branding-savvy eco-firms push to the forefront in 2007 (for examples, check out Springwise's top 10 eco & sustainability ideas). Make it green, make it chic, make it effortless, make it visible, and don't hesitate to point out your competitor's polluting alternatives ;-)

ADD YOUR OWN STATUS LIFESTYLE(S)!

One thing you can't go wrong with in 2007 is to ask yourself how your current and new products and experiences will satisfy a plethora of very diverse status seekers. In fact, once you get rid of the habit of only believing in traditional status symbols, there is no end to the number of STATUS LIFESTYLES you'll be able to identify. An exercise like that will in many cases end up with the Big Question of what these days exactly constitutes value and meaning, and to whom, but we’ll save that for another briefing ;-)

Be true to you.

2007-01-09T10:07:00.000+04:00

" I am the whole sky, so I want to fly. Fly as high as an eagle, all the while keeping the beauty of a butterfly"

Source: One in a billion. Xploring the new world of China. Saatchi & Saatchi.

10 great words for innovation.

2007-01-08T13:34:00.000+04:00

Source: Jim Carroll

Are there signs of greater turnover in your customer base, or more competitors in your industry than ever before? Is your top line getting hammered at the same time that your costs keep going up? Are your products or services becoming a commodity in an increasingly complex marketplace? Have you been so focused on managing costs that you've forgotten how to grow the business?

These are all signs of the increasing dysfunction that exists in the world of business : far too many organizations subsist in a stunning state of complacency as the world evolves around them at a very rapid pace. As the New Year approaches, it is a good time to take some positive steps : change your actions, attitudes and approaches, so you can manage change before it continues to manage you.

Adopt ten simple words that will help to get you into the right frame of mind.

1. Observe. Take the time to look for the key trends that will impact your organization and the industry in which you compete. Far too many organizations sit back after a dramatic change and asked -- what happened?" Make sure that your organization is one that asks, -- what's about to happen? And what should we do about it?"

2. Think. Analyze your observations: spend more time learning from what you see happening around you. If you are like most organizations, you are responding to trends on a short term, piecemeal basis: you are reactive, rather than proactive. Step back, take a deep breath, and analyze what trends are telling you. From that, do what really needs to be done.

3. Change. In a time of rapid change, you can't expect to get by with what has worked in the past - you must be willing to do things differently. Abandon routine; adopt an open mind about the world around you. The world is changing at a furious pace whether you like it or not. Take a look at how you do everything - and decide to do things differently.

4. Dare. Have you lost your ability to take risks? Likely so - in the last year, we've seen the phrase -- risk management" take on huge importance, as organizations have rushed out to hire -- Chief Risk Officers" so that they can deal with the compliance requirements of the -- Sarbanes-Oxley" legislation. Yet at the same time that you work to manage and minimize risk, your market is changing, your customers are abandoning you, and your margins are shrinking! Aren't these the biggest risks to manage? Taking risks is critical to your future success - don't throw this critical innovation baby out with the compliance bathwater.

5. Banish. Get rid of the words and phrases that steer you into inaction and indecision. Drop buzzwords: seek real solutions to real business problems rather than trying to run your business based on simplified pap. Ban complacency: shake your people up with some pretty dramatic action. Kill indecision: force your team to make decisions based on gut feel rather than over-analysis of dubious spreadsheets.

6. Try. How many of your people have lost their ability to adapt to changing circumstances because they've lost their confidence? Developing new skills and career capabilities is critical, given the rapid change occurring in every profession. And yet, too many people have managed to convince themselves that they can't adapt; they can't change; they can't master the new realities that surround them. They've lost their self-confidence, and they desperately need it back. Solve this problem fast.

7. Empower. In a world of rapid change, you can't expect that rigidly defined rules will be the appropriate response to changing circumstances. A ticked off customer needs a solution right now from a front line customer service rep - not some type of follow-up from head office weeks later. A middle manager in a remote location needs the ability to make a decision and must commit to it today - they can't afford to wait for the wheels of head office bureaucracy to churn. Destroy the hierarchy, and re-encourage a culture in which people are given the mandate and the power to do what's right, at the right time, for the right reason.

8. Question. Go forward with a different viewpoint by challenging assumptions and eliminating habit. If your approach to the future is based upon your past success, ask yourself whether that will really guarantee you similar results in the future. If you do certain things because -- you've always done it that way," then now is an excellent time to start doing them differently.

9. Grow. Stop focusing on cutting costs - build the business instead. Don't stand in fear of what you don't know -teach yourself something new. Don't question your ability to accomplish something great - grab the bull by the horns and see what you can do! The point is, in a world of rapid change, you must continually enhance your capabilities and opportunities through innovative thinking. Change your attitude now, and the rest will come easily.

10. Do. Renew your sense of purpose, and restore your enthusiasm for the future by taking action. Too many organizations, and the people who work within them, are on autopilot. They go into work each day, and do the same things they did the day before, with the belief that everything today is the same as it was yesterday. It isn't.

Rapid times require bold change; action is critical. Maybe 10 simple words are enough to get you started on the right track.

-----
See also: Innovative companies

Design is the new consultancy.

2007-01-06T14:06:00.000+04:00

Management schools tend to look at the world through an old world, business school prism. By contrast, design firms advise clients by teaching them about the consumer world through the eyes of anthropologists, graphic designers, engineers and psychologists.

Source: BusinessWeek, May 2004.

The light within.

2006-12-28T12:17:00.000+04:00

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Speech by Nelson Mandela.

Strategic delivery points

2006-12-25T14:04:00.000+04:00

Closing the gap between product and service delivery and corporate strategic direction provides greater competitive advantage and enhances operational effectiveness.

Successful companies deliver products and services that are closely aligned with long-term strategic goals. Leveraging these strategic delivery points not only enhances competitive advantage, but also provides feedback mechanisms to more quickly respond to market changes. At the executive level, strategic planning processes help companies set high-level goals and make investment decisions that can enhance strategic delivery points. However, below the level of the executive suite, operational effectiveness to optimize strategic delivery points relies on three key components:

Communication: In order to recognize and undertake high-value projects, teams must understand the larger corporate vision, as well as their role in the business. Executives need to listen to these teams and their customers in order to refine strategic plans.

Incentives: Cross-functional teams must be evaluated on contribution to strategic delivery and have incentives that promote collaboration.

Capabilities: Companies must build the skills necessary to deliver products and services to the market as prescribed by the strategy. These skills might consist of advanced product and service design, marketing, channel selection, or customer service.

When Your Strategy Isn’t Followed.

Recently, we spent some time with the U.S. arm of a global financial services firm where this breakdown between strategy and execution was apparent. Due to competitive pressures, the company had been slowly losing customers to a competitor who offered more innovative services. In the past year, the CEO had made it clear in his writing and speeches that his strategy was to leapfrog the competition by offering the most innovative products in their industry. But much further down the hierarchy, the project teams who developed new services weren’t executing on the CEO’s stated strategy.

In this example, all of the symptoms of strategic delivery problems were manifest:

Communication: One group wasn’t trying to innovate because they perceived it as costly and unnecessary – the group didn’t realize the directive from above was important.

Incentives: Another group was not focusing service innovation efforts on strategically important customers. Because this group was not evaluated against the corporate strategy, they had no incentive to change.

Capabilities: Yet another group understood the strategy and wanted to innovate but didn’t know how – they didn’t have the skills to understand what would constitute innovation to their customers.

Consequently, this firm has continued to lose customers. Stating the strategy didn’t go far enough; it needed to be expressed in the explicit processes of the company and supported throughout its organizational culture. At this company, the product development teams provided the greatest tactical lever to execute on the CEO’s strategy. However, despite controlling this strategic delivery point, these teams received inadequate investment and support in the areas of communication, incentives, and capabilities… and they were having trouble executing.

Core Competencies and Strategic Delivery Points

Some organizations require different capabilities to serve customers than the capabilities they use to generate new products. Although organizational processes that power product development live deep within the company, the strategic delivery points that live closer to the customer are another vital mechanism to sustain a competitive advantage.

For example, JetBlue Airway’s core competencies consist of hiring and training the right people and lean, progressive use of technology. Their strategic delivery point is the customer experience – from simple ways to buy inexpensive tickets to quickly delivering checked luggage to the carousel. To succeed, JetBlue invests not only in core technologies and human resource planning, but also in the strategic delivery point, the customer experience.

The result is a well-rounded execution of the JetBlue strategy. As of early 2005, a roundtrip JetBlue flight between Oakland, California and New York City has been selling for a higher price than competing airlines. If we consider pricing as a proxy for asset utilization, JetBlue’s superior delivery points are certainly commanding a price premium in this market. It isn’t just DirecTV and leather seats that contribute to JetBlue’s success – it’s also the delivery points, including ease of booking flights, customer service, better flight schedules, and demand-based pricing models.

But merely having the intention of delivering well doesn’t make it so. Witness airlines like Ted and Song who strive to copy the high-quality/low-fare JetBlue formula, but whose strategic delivery point – the customer experience – falls short because they failed to replicate JetBlue’s employee-focused culture. JetBlue’s successful delivery relies on more than just superficial features, like pilots who tell jokes. There is a mutually beneficial relationship between JetBlue’s superior customer service and the strategic use of technology and human resource planning.

Begin with Communication

Before the organization can develop productive incentives and capabilities, executives and front-line teams need to develop more collaborative communication systems in order to understand the delivery points that are of highest strategic importance. Executives who reach out and communicate with delivery teams are much more effective at building mechanisms for ongoing communication within the organization and with customers.

For example, JetBlue CEO David Neeleman accomplishes this by talking to customers on flights, working alongside crew members and interviewing pilots. Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett closely reviews customer research with his design teams. SAS CEO James Goodnight spends significant time leading product development teams.

All of these executives share a willingness to bypass the traditional hierarchical levels of the organization by communicating directly with customers and, just as importantly, with employees in vital functional roles. The result is a more productive fit between corporate strategy and the teams performing essential delivery work at the customer level. If communication fails at either end, the delivery teams can head in different directions without the executives even realizing it.

This quick diagnostic can help you assess how well your corporate strategy corresponds with your strategic delivery points. Organizations who have integrated strategic plans and strategic delivery points should be able to answer these questions in the positive:

- Have you identified which products and services are so vital to customers that their success equals organizational success?

- Do project teams at strategic delivery points understand how to execute on the strategy?

- Do executives understand how execution of delivery influences strategy?

- Is everyone inside the organization monitoring the customers’ experience at strategic delivery points?

Breakdown in such important communication and feedback systems sounds unlikely given today’s competitive environment, and yet we see it in many clients we work with. Unfortunately, many firms don’t address this problem until they reach a moment of crisis when they are threatened by a competitor with better control of strategic delivery points (see A Crisis in Innovation). But high performance organizations can correct their course before reaching this failure point. Communication with front-line staff and customers is a vital first step to overcoming this problem.

Nurturing uncertainty

2006-11-14T10:27:00.000+04:00

Wednesday, October 04.

We live in an uncertain world. Many people find uncertainty personally stressful and try to create order by making early decisions that reduce risk and uncertainty. Traditional business practice is to eliminate uncertainty so that planning can take place. That's good practice and common sense, but here's a tip for managers who want to improve their design team's innovation depth: develop the ability to tolerate uncertainty.

A tolerance for uncertainty may allow better quality answers by delaying decision making until more is known about a situation. The point is convincingly argued by Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Business, Tom Peters and others.

Toyota exercises a similar attitude while developing their cars. Jeffrey Liker describes this as Principle 13 in The Toyota Way; "Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options, implement rapidly".

In practice this may mean periodically re-evaluating the reasons for doing something; even the reason for the entire project or the reason for the company's existence. It may mean not deciding on any particular design until later in the process.

It will certainly mean walking with uncertainty for a little longer than you'd normally be comfortable with. Both Mr Martin and Professor Liker point out that this uncertainty should be planned for and incorporated in your design process. Let's call it disciplined uncertainty; reconciling the two worlds of reliable process and creative exploration.

Don't be afraid of uncertainty, it may seem like procrastination, foot-dragging or even indecision, but provided you've planned to be uncertain for a while, you're likely to see more powerful ideas from your team.

by Tasos Calantzis.
Design Directory.

Technology values for the future.

2006-11-06T22:38:00.000+04:00

Research and Consulting Firm Social Technologies Identifies the Top “Technology Values” for the Future.

Washington, DC (PRWeb) October 23, 2006 —Technology related products and services will increasingly be shaped by 12 underlying principles, or “technology values.” These values — such as simplicity, efficiency, and personalization — represent the characteristics that consumers will look for in products, services, and technologies over the next 10 to 15 years. This is the conclusion of a new study from the Washington, DC-based research and consulting firm Social Technologies.

The 12 values will have broad impacts across the public and private sectors, with consumers’ collective preferences driving the shape and direction of products and services, according to the report, which draws on more than six years of company research into emerging technologies and changes in global consumer lifestyles. Companies will need to embrace these principles in product design and marketing — and understand the emerging technologies that will be needed to support these values — if they hope to align with consumer needs and desires now and in the future.

As Tom Conger, founder of Social Technologies, notes, “In crafting this research we didn’t want to simply look at what was possible based on a technology point of view or what was happening in the research lab. Instead, we wanted to examine what people actually need and want from future technology-related products and services based on today’s trends and change drivers. We also wanted to look at which emerging technologies were going to help fulfill these needs and desires in the future.”

For instance, to remain competitive, product makers in many sectors will need to accommodate the value of “user creativity”—the growing desire and ability of millions of consumers to create, augment, or influence design and content and share these creations with their peers.

Methodology
The study’s authors began by creating an inventory of roughly 150 consumer needs and desires, drawing from Social Technologies’ knowledge base of global technology and lifestyle trends, then applying a futures mapping process to extract the 12 key themes. Each theme was then individually validated and amplified through intensive research. To complement the report, Social Technologies has launched a series of workshops to help organizations apply the concept of technology values to practical questions.

Top Technology Values—Highlights

User creativity
Consumers increasingly want to create, augment, or influence design and content, and share these creations with their peers. Supporting user creativity will be increasingly important to consumer technology, and will become more mainstream in coming decades.

Personalization
Consumers will increasingly look for products and services that align with their specific personal needs and preferences—whether in the aesthetics of a product or in its functional design. More goods will be created to match individuals’ unique specifications.

Simplicity
Simplicity will have growing value for consumers confronted with information overload, time stress, and technological complexity. Simplicity’s influence is already evident in new, stripped-down devices that offer just a few functions, as well as in minimalist interfaces that conceal breathtaking complexity. The common denominator of all these efforts is that they are human-centered—and thus easy to learn and integrate into busy lives.

Assistance
As consumers are bombarded with more tasks, choices, and information, and as demographic changes such as aging reshape consumer markets, they are looking to assistive technologies for help. Consumers will seek to bolster and extend their natural abilities—with technologies ranging from pharmaceuticals that enhance mental performance to robot aides for the elderly.

Appropriateness
Products and services will need to embrace the principle of appropriateness to ensure that they are suitably designed for users with varying physical needs, resources, cultural characteristics, literacy levels, etc. Appropriateness will aid in the spread of technology products and services to new markets and to diverse user segments.

Convenience
Already well-established in mature markets, demand for convenience will rise as a technology value for consumers all over the world. Consumers will look for technological products and services that give them what they want and need on demand and that reduce effort and relieve time pressure.

Connectedness
Connectedness gives consumers what they want, when they want it, and will grow exponentially with the expanding global information infrastructure. Consumers will look for products and services that seamlessly integrate with this global network.

Efficiency
Efficiency is the ratio of output to input—or, put simply, the ability to do more with less. It will become more important to technology as consumers search for products and services that let them manage emerging resource uncertainties, rising costs, and other pressures.

Intelligence
Intelligence will be enabled by innovations that increasingly shift information and decision-making burdens from the user to the device or service. The demand for greater intelligence will come in response to factors including complexity, aging, and the desire for personalized experiences.

Protection
Protection will be sought by consumers in a world that feels increasingly insecure. Consumers will look for technology-enabled products and services that strengthen their sense of personal security and protect their families, homes, wealth, and privacy.

Health
Consumers will look to technological products and services to maintain and, increasingly, improve their health and wellness. The search for health-enabling solutions will extend beyond traditional health and medical products and services to include more of the things consumers use in their everyday lives, whether at home, work, or play.

Sustainability
Consumers will increasingly look for products and services that embrace sustainability—reducing the “human footprint” on the environment while maintaining quality of life. A variety of technologies offer ways to minimize resource use, waste, and pollution while improving human welfare.

Nokia N93 Taps Tastemakers.

2006-10-17T14:39:00.000+04:00

To launch it's high end video phone, Nokia is not content to just tell the public about its many features, such as a 3.2 megapixel video and still camera. Instead, the Finnish company has opted to attract those ever-desirable tastemakers and influencers as consumers via an innovative and creative demonstration of the N93s capabilities.

Nokia Studio is an online showcase for a collection of films shot by an eclectic group of creatives, ranging from acclaimed actor Gary Oldman to Parisian PR and marketing guru Mimi Xu of EMERGE-approved fashion/music brand Kitsune as well as 35 other designers, creative directors, filmmakers, photographers and creatives. An addition set of four films centering on the city of London are to be added soon by Naomi Cleaver, Nigel Coates, Tom Dixon, and Dazed & Confused editor Jefferson Hack. Users are invited to submit films of their own as well, adding an element of meaningful interaction with Nokia's project for those who already have video-enabled mobile devices.

The films themselves run the gamut from fascinating to bizarre, experimental to more straight forward. What is most interesting is Nokia's decision to really collaborate with the kind of commercially-oriented creatives who drive the high end feature phone market (not to mention set the broader cultural tone for the rest of us). Without making a terribly aggressive push to drive traffic to the Studio website or to hawk the N93, Nokia has created a genuinely intriguing bit of soft sell marketing. For those that learn about the Studio or are referred there by someone in the know, finding your way to the "Spontaneous Stories" films feels like a discovery. Finding out that you too can participate alongside a legend like Oldman simply intensifies the sense of being part of something special. Thanks Nokia.

Thanks Emerge.

This is my process.

2006-10-06T13:47:00.000+04:00

"As you walk past cobbler shop, hook (A) strikes suspended boot (B), causing it to kick football (C) through goal posts (D). Football drops into basket (E) and string (F) tilts sprinkling can, (G) causing water to soak coat tails (H). As coat shrinks, cord (I) opens door (J) of cage, allowing bird (K) to walk out on perch (L) and grab worm (M) which is attached to string (N). This pulls down window shade (O) on which is written, 'YOU SAP, MAIL THAT LETTER.'"

Rube Goldberg, Device to Keep You From Forgetting To Mail Your Wife's Letter, date unknown

For over twenty years, I've been writing proposals for projects. And almost every one of them has a passage somewhere that begins something like this: "This project will be divided in four phases: Orientation and Analysis, Conceptual Design, Design Development, and Implementation." All clients want this. Sometimes there are five phases, sometimes six. Sometimes they have different names. But it's always an attempt to answer a potential client's unavoidable question: can you describe the process you use to create a design solution that’s right for us?

The other day I was looking at a proposal for a project I finished a few months ago. The result, by my measure and by the client's, was successful. But guess what? The process I so reassuringly put forward at the outset had almost nothing to do with the way the project actually went. What would happen, I wonder, if I actually told the truth about what happens in a design process?

It might go something like this:

When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you’re lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience with your situation. Somewhere along the way an idea for the design pops into my head from out of the blue. I can’t really explain that part; it’s like magic. Sometimes it even happens before you have a chance to tell me that much about your problem! Now, if it’s a good idea, I try to figure out some strategic justification for the solution so I can explain it to you without relying on good taste you may or may not have. Along the way, I may add some other ideas, either because you made me agree to do so at the outset, or because I’m not sure of the first idea. At any rate, in the earlier phases hopefully I will have gained your trust so that by this point you’re inclined to take my advice. I don’t have any clue how you’d go about proving that my advice is any good except that other people — at least the ones I’ve told you about — have taken my advice in the past and prospered. In other words, could you just sort of, you know...trust me?

Now, an intelligent client might ask a number of reasonable questions: How can a bunch of random conversations yield the information you need to do your work? Shouldn’t the strategic justification be in place before the design work begins? If you show me one solution, how will I know it’s the only one that will work? On the other hand, if you show me a bunch of solutions, how will I know which one is best? What will happen if I don't like any of them? Finally, can you explain that magic part to me again?

Not only that, but my "honest" description of the process is an idealized one. Sometimes I have one great idea but can't convince the client it's great and I have to do more ones. Sometimes this leads to a better idea. Sometimes it leads to a worse idea. Sometimes after I go back and explore other ideas we all come back to the original idea. Sometimes the client accepts an idea, and then produces other people who haven't been involved up to that point who end up having opinions of their own. One way or another it always seems to get done, but never as originally promised.

Although I've managed to enjoy a relatively successful career as a designer, I've always had the vague sense that I was doing something wrong. A better designer would be able to able to manage the process properly, moving everyone along cheerfully from Phase One to Phase Two, right on schedule and right on budget. What was wrong with me?

You may have had the same feeling: it seems to be pretty common among the designers I know. Then, this past summer, I was lucky enough to participate in the AIGA's Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders program at Harvard Business School. (Which I highly recommend, by the way.) Part of the assigned reading was a book that one of the instructors, Rob Austin, wrote with Lee Devin called Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know about How Artists Work. Artful Making has an interesting message: we may have been right all along.

What makes the book particularly interesting is the collaboration of the two co-authors. Austin is a Harvard Business School professor who has focused on information technology management; Devin is not a business school teacher but a professor of theater at Swarthmore College. At the outset, the writers acknowledge that the nature of work is changing in the 21st century, characterizing it as "a shift from an industrial economy to an information economy, from physical work to knowledge work." In trying to understand how this new kind of work can be managed, they propose a model based not on industrial production, but on the collaborative arts, specifically theater. Interestingly, the process of mounting a play, as we've noted here before, is not that different from doing a design project. The iterative process, the role of improvisation, the adjustments that are made in response to audience feedback, all of these elements are a part of any design process. And, in a way, they've always been the ones that have vaguely unnerving to me.

Evidently, this unease is common. The authors take pains to point out that they're not advocating a "loose" process or one that lacks rigor. "A theater company," Austin and Devin point out, "consistently delivers a valuable, innovative product under the pressure of a very firm deadline (opening night, eight o'clock curtain). The product, a play executes again and again with great precision, incorporating significant innovations every time, but finishing within 30 seconds of the same length every time." They are careful to identify the defining characteristics of this kind of work: allowing solutions to emerge in a process of iteration, rather than trying to get everything right the first time; accepting the lack of control in the process, and letting the improvisation engendered by uncertainty help drive the process; and creating a work environment that sets clear enough limits that people can play securely within them. They call this artful making: in short, "any activity that involves creating something entirely new." This includes not just the obvious "arty" things, but, for instance, "a successful response to an unexpected move by a competitor" or "handling a sudden problem caused by a supplier."

Over nearly 200 pages, Austin and Devin make a persuasive case — a vigorous argument, really — for a process that most designers would find familiar. I read the book, in fact, with a certain degree of smugness: we already know all this stuff, I kept thinking. More interesting to me was the tone that the authors take with their presumed reader, a kind of imaginary Old School Boss. Addicted to flow charts and timelines. Suspicious of ambiguity, unexpected outcomes, and, especially, artists. You know the type. That's who they're addressing when they say, almost consolingly, "We know our industrial age thought patterns intimately. We're comfortable with them. We love them because they are so successful for us..." Hey, who do you mean, "we?"

I was still feeling a little superior a few weeks later, attending one of Rob Austin's sessions at the AIGA HBS program. He was talking about his book and showing a slide that compared two processes. On the left was a diagram of the iterative, cyclical process used to develop software at a company that Austin admires, Trilogy. On the right was a sequential process, with arrows leading in turn from "Concept Generation" to "Product Planning" to "Product Engineering" to "Process Engineering" to "Production Process." This diagram was labeled "Clark and Fujimoto's Description of the Automaking Process."

I'll be damned if I've ever heard of Clark or Fujimoto, but the thing on the right looked eerily familiar. For good reason: I've used a version of it in hundreds of proposals over the years. I never really believed it was an accurate way to describe the process. I simply never had the confidence to describe the process in any other way. Like a lot of designers, I've considered my real process my little secret. With their work, Rob Austin and Lee Devin provide a new way not to think about what we do, but to help others understand it.

Good vs. great designers.

2006-10-06T13:13:00.000+04:00

Nine skills that separate good and great designers.

Emirates Airlines microsite

2006-10-03T18:35:00.000+04:00

A good microsite for Emirates Airlines inflight entertainment sytem.

www.timewillfly.com

Eye-catching.

2006-10-03T17:13:00.000+04:00

Japanese designer, Yohji Yamamoto's show in Paris.

Lessons on designing innovation.

2006-09-25T11:44:00.000+04:00

SEPTEMBER 25, 2006 INSIDE INNOVATION -- IN FOCUS

Lessons On Designing Innovation

From an interview with Apple's Jonathan Ive at the Radical Craft Conference, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, March 25, 2006.

"I think one of the things we are good at as a team is gently moving these fragile ideas along a bit so they become just a little more robust and you can actually start to see what they are. So we go from those sorts of discussions and then we just make lots and lots of prototypes. Then we spend a lot of time at the manufacturing sites. We'll be there right to the end when we're in production."

"If you are going to design something that's going to be truly innovative, my experience has been that this will require the company that's going to make it to change -- often to change fundamentally -- in its approach to how it develops products, how it evaluates them, how it makes them, and how it markets them."

"We try very genuinely to design products that solve problems. They are not about self-expression. What we are trying to do is design something that when you see it you really wonder if it's been designed at all because it seems so obvious and so inevitable and so simple."

"We don't make very much stuff. That's a very important part of our approach to what we do, which is to not do a lot of unnecessary stuff but just to focus and really try very sincerely to care so much about the few things that we do."

"We love taking things to pieces and understanding how they are made. We will figure something out that seems relatively interesting and we'll spend some time in Northern Japan talking to the master about how we can form metal in a certain way. As you truly understand that, that obviously informs your design rather than it just being an arbitrary shape."

- BusinessWeek online.

Tokyo subway station billboard.

2006-09-20T12:26:00.000+04:00

In Japan, McDonald's is tagging food packaging with QRCodes, so that appropriately-enabled camera phones can pull up nutritional info on the spot. The UbiComp folks are all over this stuff and with their annual conference this week, we're sure to be reading more about curious/weird/powerful/simple applications for smarter technologies like this one.

http://www.core77.com

Philanthropy.

2006-09-19T14:24:00.000+04:00

Tuesday, September 19, 2006.
UAE Red Crescent donates $1 million to buttress UNICEF projects

BEIRUT: The Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates signed a deal Monday to donate $1 million toward UNICEF projects aimed at improving the water supply and health and education services in the South. The agreement was signed in Beirut by Khalifa Nasser al-Suweidi, chairman of the UAE Red Crescent, and UNICE'sF representative in Lebanon, Roberto Laurenti.

"We are extremely grateful for this important contribution to our work, and to Lebanon's reconstruction," Laurenti said. "It underlines the strong partnership built up in recent years between UNICEF and the UAE Red Crescent."

Roughly half the funds will go toward the reconstruction of drinking water systems which suffered severe damage during the recent 34-day war with Israel. Construction work is already under way on large water tanks that will serve thousands of households in the villages of Khiam and Beit Yahoun, and on a well in Al-Kfarwa. Another large water tank will be built in Haret Saida. In addition, the UAE Red Crescent will provide nine large generators needed to pump water from deep wells.

Funding will also go toward the rehabilitation of the "cold chain" essential to the restoration of routine immunization for children across South Lebanon. In addition to funding the purchase of vaccines, refrigerators and other supplies, the UAE Red Crescent will provide staff to support vaccination campaigns.

The remainder of the funds will help ensure that pre-school and primary-school children resume their education when the new academic year begins next month. The funds will provide school bags containing notebooks, pens and other stationery for some of the 25,000 children covered by the "Back to School" campaign, and classroom supplies for schools in South Lebanon.

UNICEF and the UAE Red Crescent have collaborated closely during a number of recent emergencies, including in Iraq, Palestine, the Horn of Africa, Pakistan, and the South Asian tsunami.

Since the beginning of the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon in mid-July, UNICEF has provided water, hygiene and medical supplies to over 100,000 children and their families.

In the water sector, UNICEF has supplied so far about 2 million of bottled water to over 130 communities in South Lebanon, and is installing water tanks and supporting repairs to pumping and distribution systems as a long-term strategy.

Partnering with national and international non-governmental organizations, UNICEF is supporting the provision of psycho-social assistance and basic counselling to more than 200,000 children directly affected by the conflict.

- The Daily Star.

Use of illegal weapons.

2006-09-13T14:41:00.000+04:00

Israeli soldiers blow whistle on use of illegal weapons

Daily Star staff, Wednesday, September 13, 2006.

BEIRUT: Israeli soldiers blew the whistle on the Israeli Army's "insane and monstrous" attacks on Lebanon in an article posted on the Web site of an Israeli newspaper on Tuesday.

Several anonymous sources within the army's artillery units posted in Lebanon during the recent 34-day war told the Haaretz daily that they had blanketed Southern Lebanon's towns with cluster bombs and knowingly launched bombs banned by international law.

"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an Israeli Army rocket unit in Lebanon told Haaretz regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.

Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the Israeli Army fired some 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.

Other soldiers testified that the army used internationally banned phosphorous shells during the war. The lion's share of the illegal ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war, they said.

The rocket unit commander further told Haaretz Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) platforms were used extensively, despite the fact they are known to be "highly inaccurate."

The article described MLRS as "a track- or tire-carried mobile rocket launching platform, capable of firing a very high volume of mostly unguided munitions. The basic rocket fired by the platform is unguided and imprecise, with a range of about 32 kilometers. The rockets are designed to burst into sub-munitions at a planned altitude in order to blanket enemy army and personnel on the ground with smaller explosive rounds."

"The use of such weaponry is controversial mainly due to its inaccuracy and ability to wreak great havoc against indeterminate targets over large areas of territory, with a margin of error of as much as 1,200 meters from the intended target to the area hit," it added.

The United Nations has estimated that as much as 40 percent of the clusters fired on Lebanon remain on the ground as unexploded munitions.

At least a dozen Lebanese civilians have been killed by unexploded bomblets since an August 14 cease-fire began.

According to the commander, in order to compensate for the inaccuracy of the rockets and the inability to strike individual targets precisely, units would "flood" the battlefield with munitions, accounting for the littered and explosive landscape of post-war Lebanon.

When his reserve duty came to a close, the commander sent a letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz outlining the use of cluster munitions, a letter which he told Haaretz has remained unanswered.

The Israeli daily said that "it has come to light that Israeli soldiers fired phosphorous rounds in order to cause fires in Lebanon," quoting an artillery commander as saying he saw trucks loaded with phosphorous rounds on their way to artillery crews in the north of Israel.

The International Red Cross has determined that international law forbids the use of phosphorous and other types of flammable rounds against personnel, both civilian and military.

The Israeli Army's Spokesman's Office told Haaretz that "international law does not include a sweeping prohibition of the use of cluster bombs. The convention on conventional weaponry does not declare a prohibition on [phosphorous weapons], rather, on principles regulating the use of such weapons."

Climate crisis.

2006-09-03T17:19:00.000+04:00

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org

Inverse illusions.

2006-08-31T21:21:00.000+04:00

These classic optical illustrations demonstrate how we should view things from different angles.

Calls for ban on cluster bombs.

2006-08-31T12:03:00.000+04:00

Pressure for ban on cluster bombs as Israel is accused of targeting civilians.

By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent.
Published: 31 August 2006.

Pressure for an international ban on cluster bombs has intensified as Israel stands accused of littering southern Lebanon with thousands of unexploded bombs in the final hours of its war against Hizbollah.

Campaigners yesterday accused the Israel Defence Force of leaving a "minefield" of deadly bomblets in villages and fields after firing hundreds of cluster shells, rockets and bombs across its northern border in the three days before hostilities ended earlier this month.

United Nations officials said that 12 people had been killed, and another 49 injured by such bombs since the war ended and that the casualty rate was likely to rise.

The Israeli government insists that it did not target civilians during the conflict and says all weaponry used was in accordance with international law.

Israel insists its use of weaponry is legal. However, anti-landmine campaigners have been pressing for an international ban on their use, arguing that cluster bombs are indiscriminate and their use in populated areas may contravene international law.

Mine-clearance specialists said densely populated southern Lebanon was blighted by thousands of unexploded bomblets, which can kill or maim if they are moved or touched. In one case this week 35 bomblets were cleared from in and around one house, while in another a woman lost her hands when a bomblet apparently became tangled in her tobacco crop.

Yesterday the United Nations official in charge of bomb disposal in southern Lebanon said his staff had identified 390 strikes by cluster munitions, and had disposed of more than 2,000 bomblets since the ceasefire.

Chris Clarke, head of the UN mine action service in southern Lebanon, said: "This is without a doubt the worst post-conflict cluster bomb contamination I have ever seen."

In a presentation at the international conference on conventional weapons in Geneva yesterday, he said that the "vast majority" of cluster bombs had been fired by the Israeli Defence Force in the final three days of the conflict, prompting campaigners to accuse the Israeli government of targeting civilian populations.

Mr Clarke, who has worked in bomb clearance in Sudan, Kosovo, Kuwait and Bosnia, said the number of confirmed strikes was "climbing every day". He said: "They are everywhere in south Lebanon. We are still looking. Pretty much the whole of south Lebanon is carpeted with these things." He predicted that specialists would take up to six months to remove the worst threat from unexploded weaponry and said full clearance could take a further year.

Speaking from Lebanon yesterday Sean Sutton, of the Mines Action Group, which has 80 staff clearing the unexploded bombs, said: "This is pretty widespread across the whole of southern Lebanon. There are literally thousands of unexploded munitions in and around the remains of people's homes and on the roads and streets."

Simon Conway, director of the British charity Landmine Action, condemned Israel's "cynical" use of the weapons. He said: "The premeditated targeting of residential areas with high failure-rate cluster munitions in the final days of the conflict means that the rubble-filled villages of southern Lebanon have been deliberately turned into minefields that will indiscriminately kill civilians for years to come."

Yesterday the charity published a report highlighting the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon and calling for an immediate international ban on their use.

Frank Cook, Labour chairman of the Commons all-party Landmine Group, added: "These weapons are totally indiscriminate. For them to be used by Israel among a civilian population is quite outrageously inexcusable."

Susan Kramer, the Liberal Democrat international development spokesman, said: "Cluster munitions need to be outlawed once and for all. Lebanon is still suffering from their use by the Israelis in 1978 and 1982."

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London insisted the country's armed forces did not target civilians. He said: "Israel does not use any weaponry that is forbidden under international law or conventions."

Unexploded hazards.

Cluster bombs are designed to deliver a devastating blitz on military vehicles and troop emplacements, each device scattering hundreds of explosive "bomblets" over a wide area.

However, their use has become highly controversial, with campaigners likening them to landmines, warning that strikes can leave hundreds of deadly unexploded weapons strewn across a battlefield decades after the troops have left.

The individual devices, about the size of a tin can, can inflict severe or even fatal injuries if they are moved or handled by unsuspecting civilians returning to an affected area.

UN mine clearance experts have identified 390 strikes by Israeli cluster bombs in its recent war in Lebanon. Munitions include American-made M42 and M47 shells which each contain about 80 bomblets. UN staff have also found the remains of Israeli-manufactured M85 weapons, which are fired by rocket and contain 644 bomblets. They say that American-made cluster bombs dropped from aircraft have also been used.

Bomblets are designed to explode on impact. However, campaigners say that a high proportion fail to detonate and remain as a hazard for civilians. Experts in Lebanon say that up to half of the bomblets dropped during the recent conflict remain unexploded.

Israeli cluster bombs - war crimes.

2006-08-31T11:50:00.000+04:00

The UN's humanitarian chief has accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of cluster bombs in Lebanon.

UN clearance experts had so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites, Jan Egeland said.

UN efforts to rid Lebanon of cluster bombs have been under way since the conflict ended. Earlier estimates from UN experts had suggested a total of about 100 cluster bomb sites.

Mr Egeland described the fresh statistics as "shocking new information".

"What's shocking and completely immoral is: 90% of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there would be a resolution," he said.

The UN ceasefire resolution which ended the month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah was agreed by the Security Council on Friday, 11 August, and came into effect on Monday, 14 August.

Mr Egeland added: "Cluster bombs have affected large areas - lots of homes, lots of farmland. They will be with us for many months, possibly years.

"Every day, people are maimed, wounded and killed by these weapons. It shouldn't have happened."

Mr Egeland said his information had come from the UN Mine Action Co-ordination Centre, which had undertaken assessments of nearly 85% of the bombed areas in Lebanon.

Earlier this week the US state department launched an inquiry into whether Israel misused US-made cluster bombs in Lebanon during the conflict....

© BBC MMVI

Published: 2006/08/30 18:56:50 GMT

Cleaning Beirut's beaches.

2006-08-17T18:10:00.000+04:00

Titanic struggle to clean Beirut's beaches of oil.

By Agence France Presse (AFP), Thursday, August 17, 2006.
by Seth Meixner.

BEIRUT, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - Armed only with shovels and plastic buckets, a few dozen volunteers struggled Thursday to scrape oil-stained sand off a Beirut beach as environmental groups began the monumental task of cleaning up tons of oil spilt across Lebanon's coast.

"We're trying to move as much sand as possible today and tomorrow so we'll know how many days it will take" to clean Ramlet el-Bayda beach, said Nina Jamal of the Lebanese environmental group Green Line.

Nearly 15,000 tons of leaked oil from the Jiyyeh electric plant, bombed by Israel last month, has polluted some 140 kilometers (90 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, according to the UN Environment Programme.

"This is the biggest environmental disaster in the Mediterranean basin, we can say that very easily," said Green Line's Wael Hmaidan before rushing off to a meeting with government officials.

Young men and women working on the beach gathered oil-soaked debris into small piles while others tried to dig up sand that had been transformed into a thick, noxious gum by the spill. Others deployed oil booms in a bid to keep the pollution from washing back into the sea.

The one-kilometer (half mile) beach has been fouled by a vast black smear that has stained the sand dozens of meters inland and blackened stone breakwaters on either end of Ramlet el-Bayda.

More shocking, volunteers said, was Thursday's discovery that the pollution has reached nearly a half-meter into the beach. A hole dug near the waterline revealed at least five bands of thick fuel oil sandwiched between the sand like a toxic layer cake.

"It makes it much harder to clean -- every time a wave comes in it pushes the pollution deeper into the sand," Jamal said.

"We've seen dead fish, dead crabs. The oil is more than one meter deep in some places and we've seen rocks so covered that they look like they've been painted black," she said.

"It will be no less than six years before it gets back to normal." Cooperation with the government and private sector is key to the cleanup, Jamal said, adding that at least one private company has agreed to store the polluted sand until it can be properly disposed of.

But bureaucracy is still hamstringing Green Line, which already has lost a month of work due to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah fighters, she said.

A bulldozer brought in earlier in the morning to help shift tons of sand was stopped by the authorities from working, forcing the volunteers to go back to their shovels, she said, adding that the spill has endangered breeding sea turtles.

"You can't have bureaucratic complications when you have an environmental disaster. This is the worst time ecologically," she said.

On a wider scale, a continuing Israeli blockade is preventing heavy equipment from reaching other worse-hit stretches of coast, said Greenpeace's communications officer Basma Badran.

"There are local groups making symbolic, temporary cleanup operations, but this requires larger-scale equipment and expertise which is not coming because of the blockade," she said.

"This is definitely one of the most catastrophic environmental problems that the Lebanon coast has seen -- there's been no proper assessment yet and its extent is unknown," she said.

Officials from the United Nations, European Union and a maritime organization are set to meet in Greece Thursday to map out a strategy for containing the massive oil spill.

More oil has already spilled from the Jiyyeh plant than leaked from the Erika oil tanker into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France in 1999.

Officials warn that if all the oil from the damaged facility, 50 kilometers south of Beirut, were to seep into the sea, the environmental fallout could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound.

Mobile phones key role in war.

2006-08-17T10:59:00.000+04:00

Text messages become tools of citizen journalism, fundraising, psychological warfare

By Lysandra Ohrstrom, Daily Star staff
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

BEIRUT: As Abbas Wehbe held up the charred body of his 10-day-old niece for a throng of onlookers after Israel's attack on the Shiyyah district of Beirut last Tuesday night, dozens of anonymous arms extended above the crowd, straining to capture photographic evidence of Israel's aggression on their cellular phones.

Over the course of the five-week conflict, the mobile phone has moved beyond its primary pre-war function as a means of inter-personal communication and morphed into a tool of citizen journalism, fundraising and even psychological warfare.

Short Messaging Service (SMS) in particular has become the dominant form of content delivery. According to a report on mobile trends published in February by MTC Touch, one of Lebanon's two cellular service providers, SMS traffic has skyrocketed over the past four years.

In Lebanon 25 percent of the population are cellular subscribers, giving the country one of the highest mobile penetration rates anywhere in the Middle East and North Africa. Before the war 55 percent of mobile customers used their phones exclusively for voice-to-voice communication and 62 percent of communication was related to business.

Though the country's economy has been paralyzed since the onset of hostilities, the duration and frequency of calls has increased per subscriber, according to Mohammad Shabib, general manager of MTC Touch Lebanon. Shabib was not able to provide specific information about the nature of the calls, but presumably they were not business related.

In the context of war, companies in all sectors of the Lebanese economy have launched local and regional SMS fundraising campaigns. The Red Cross partnered with ALFA, the country's other mobile service provider, for the "ALFA for Life campaign," which asks subscribers to donate $1 or four units via text.

MTC Touch received approval from the Telecoms Ministry to begin a similar campaign this week, and has already raised funds through campaigns with its affiliates in Jordan and Bahrain.
Others in the Lebanese private sector are using SMSs to reassure skittish clients and present a softer side to the public. Arope Insurance sent text messages to customers about their new 24-hour hotline, which read: "We are asking God to keep you safe and preserve our country."
Mobile phones were also instrumental in the evacuation of many foreigners from Lebanon - both the Swedish and French foreign ministries sent SMS evacuation updates to their citizens free of charge and informed them when and where to assemble to board ships through text messages.

But in the most novel development mobile phones have emerged as tools for citizen journalism since they allow people on the ground to transmit audio, video and photographs by SMS.
At its best, text messaging has complemented the blog - the latest empowering trend in media - by allowing "the street" to contribute to the mainstream coverage of the conflict traditionally dominated by news organizations.

Countless blogs have emerged, giving Lebanese nationals who are witnessing the carnage first hand new outlets to air both their grievances and the gritty, raw images captured on the ground.
Blogs like "In the Field," "Global Voices Online" and "Blogging Beirut" invite anyone on the ground to post amateur photos via text messages and e-mail.

Even major networks like the British Broadcasting Corp. and CNN are soliciting viewers to send in images captured by phones or digital cameras through SMS.

But like any relatively new technology cellular phones have a paradoxical potential. Israel has supplemented its usual tactics aimed at upsetting cross-sectarian balance - such as the time-honored "propaganda bomb," where planes drop leaflets aimed at undermining Hizbullah's support base - with cellular phones.

A Christian cab driver for a Beirut-based company said that he no longer picks up unidentified international calls - marked by "0000" on his mobile screen - after he received two calls from Israel on two separate nights at around 1 a.m.

"They call me every night and say this war is not against you it's against the terrorists," said the driver, who requested anonymity. He told The Daily Star he had also gotten a recorded message: "What do you think of the terror Hizbullah is causing you and your country?"

The London-based newspaper The Guardian also reported that Israel has been sending SMS alerts disguised as news updates to undermine Hizbullah's leadership. One text message, under the banner "news," accused senior Hizbullah officials of plotting an escape from Lebanon into Syria.

Residents trickling back into Dahiyeh on Tuesday snapped photos of themselves amid the rubble of destroyed apartment blocks. Nearby, hundreds of spools of film spilled out of the window of a destroyed photo developing store.

Mobile phones may no longer be tools of war as the conflict tapers off along with the international appetite for images of destruction, but they probably will not be perceived as mere tools of communication either.

The next battle...

2006-08-16T15:51:00.000+04:00

The next battle: Who will reconstruct southern Lebanon?

By Zvi Bar'el
Ha'aretz, August 16th.

The proprietor of Cuba Libre is fed up with the war. A short and ruinous attack by the Israeli air force on the Ashrafiyeh quarter of Beirut made it clear to him that he would have to wait until next year to see summer profits. Cuba Libre is a popular nightclub, where every Thursday people dance to salsa music played by a local band. Guest performers are hosted on Fridays and Saturdays, and on the other days the DJ reigns.

Summer is the high season at this club, like the rest of the food and entertainment establishments in Beirut. Visitors from Europe and the Gulf States, along with locals, fill the coffers, which are supposed to last through hard times as well - such as Ramadan or the chilly winter season. The patrons of these cafes believed that this year too they would be able, as in the past, to participate in the war over cocktails and a profound and serious discussion of Lebanon's future. But suddenly there ware bombs overhead.

However, Cuba Libre's proprietor, like those of the Sheba Club, the fast-food restaurant Diwan al-Hashem or Dunkin' Donuts, did not give up easily. They closed their Beirut locations, but immediately opened new branches in Christian towns far from the capital where, they believed, Israel would not strike. Thus, for example, a branch of Cuba Libre opened in the town of Qali'at, eight kilometers from the city of Junia, in northern Lebanon. The proprietor rented a space, decorated it quickly, added lighting, brought the staff from Beirut and started serving beer and wine to visitors.

And who are the customers? All of those refugees who arrived from Beirut and from the bombed towns in the south. Qali'at is a favorite vacation destination among the wealthy of Beirut, some of whom have summer homes there. It also has historical relevence: The Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir was born there, as was Eli Hubeika, the phalangist who changed from a friend to an enemy. The Taif agreement signed in 1989 was ratified in Qali'at.

Now it is the refuge of partyers and bohemians until it becomes clear the cease-fire is holding. In the meantime Cuba Libre's proprietor can make a living, pay decent wages of about $6,000 a month, and continue covering rent in Beirut. If anyone was looking for additional proof of Lebanese entrepreneurship, then here it is, in the mountains near Junia.

War economics.

At the other end of the new food chain engendered by the war are the refugees from the south. Some of them know they have lost all of their property; others do not know where they will go when things calm down. On Monday the journey back to southern Lebanon had already begun, a profound expression of residents' belief that the cease-fire would hold. But there are also those who have seen a different world in Lebanon due to the war.

Bissan al-Sheikh, a correspondent for the London-based newspaper Al Hayat, reported, for example, that a number of the refugees from the south who had fled to Junia did not wait for the cease-fire or spend time relaxing in the sun, but immediately started looking for new jobs - and found them. One man found work with a gas distribution company, where he was earning more than he had at home in the south, she reported. Others found jobs at printing houses, cafes or construction sites in the city. Apart from the new intimate contact between the southerners and the northerners - Christians or Muslims, Sunnis or Shi'ites - a new system of economic opportunities has emerged.

One of the outstanding examples is in the labor market. In a country that suffers from an official unemployment rate of 15 percent, the cheap workers until now were mainly Syrians, Egyptians or Asians. The war sent most of the foreign workers packing in alarm, and more importantly - for the Lebanese - thousands of Syrian workers fled the country, especially from the Beirut area. After the IDF bombed the Bekaa and killed 33 workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, the laborers fled this area, too. In this the war did a service to everyone in Lebanon who called for the nationalization of the labor force and the eviction of the Syrian workers, who represent the continuation of Syrian control in Lebanon.

Nationalization of labor is a nice slogan, but it does not help the farmers in the south and the Bekaa who, like their peers in the Galilee, found themselves in the height of the growing season with trees full of fruit and no one to harvest it. And thus, an entire season's harvest has gone down the drain. Even if some farmers did manage to pick their cherries, no one was willing to take the risk of transporting them to the market in Beirut.

Now the tobacco planting season is starting in Lebanon, and thousands of dunams are waiting for the planters, who are waiting in Syria. The Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon are both controlled by Hezbollah, and the question remains of who will compensate those farmers - the government, which has received $1.5 billion from Saudi Arabia, or Hezbollah, which holds a lot of money in banks in Lebanon and elsewhere.

$3 billion in damage.

It appears that compensation for war damages will be the next battlefield between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government. According to the government's Council for Development and Rehabilitation, the country has suffered a total of $3 billion in damage. A large part of this, about $400 million, is to roads, and the rest is divided between damage to the electricity infrastructure (about $180 million), residential buildings and bridges, and industries and services. There are no figures yet for indirect damages, although it is clear that the current tourism year died even before it was born.

Apart from damage to bridges and roads, most of the damage was to Shi'ite areas controlled by Hezbollah, such as the southern neighborhood of Beirut and villages in the south, some of which will need to be fully rebuilt. This is an opportunity for the Lebanese government to regain civil - not only military - control in areas where it relinquished its powers to Hezbollah. This means that the government, not Hezbollah, will have to invest directly in the injured regions, and not via the movement's institutions.

But here it is liable to encounter the same difficulty it is facing in disarming Hezbollah.

In the best case, the organization will demand money in return for withdrawing militarily from southern Lebanon, so that it will be able at least to retain its civilian control in the south. In the worst case, the organization will not allow the government to rehabilitate the villages and will do so with its own resources. It will demand that the government compensate it in other ways, such as via tenders in non-Shi'ite locations.

Thus it will be able to enjoy the best of both worlds - it will continue controlling the southern region and the Bekaa directly, and will also receive government funding, even for rebuilding its Beirut headquarters and maintaining its arsenal, on either bank of the Litani River.

Nature = nurture.

2006-08-15T23:35:00.000+04:00

Nature gives us so much. Why can't we look after it? If not for altruistic reasons, then at least because it provides us with benefits like medicines...and good-for-you drinks!

While taste is a key factor in what we drink, choosing a beverage today involves way more than just flavor. From nutrition to energy boosts, the list of benefits continues to expand. These are two of the latest refreshments to generate consumer buzz.

Himalayan Goji Juice (www.gojishop.com): Along with previously mentioned dark purplish fruits from far away lands, Acai and Noni, the Goji berry has long been heralded by raw foodies for its mega-nutritional properties. It flaunts a high concentration of anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatories, amino acids, trace minerals, vitamin c and beta carotene.

Coco H2O: We’re seeing a growing number of health-conscious consumers flock to the refrigerated section of stores such as Whole Foods to pick up coconut water by brands such as Zico and VitaCoco (www.vitacoco.com). Especially popular among gym rats and yogis, potassium- and electrolyte-packed coconut water is stealing thirsty consumers away from trendy energy drinks and sports beverages. With all things healthy generating buzz, we expect this natural alternative to energy drinks to gain fans among the mainstream as well.

What do you see?

2006-08-15T23:13:00.000+04:00

More importantly, what do you propagate?

I'm with love myself, it's much more fulfilling. Spread the love.

Bank Audi: Campaign for Hope.

2006-08-15T16:16:00.000+04:00

August 10, 2006.

No matter how the clouds gather, the sun of Lebanon will prevail.

BOSTON If you are a marketer, there may be times when you feel sheepish about what you do for a living. You strike up a conversation with someone and find out he or she is a firefighter or nurse or even a grammar school teacher and you may hold back saying your work involves increasing market share.

Farid Chehab does not have this problem, even though he is as much a marketer as any CMO. Chehab is Leo Burnett's chief creative officer for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in Beirut. "It's a crazy situation," he said Wednesday from his office in the Lebanese capital. "If you hear any explosions in the background, don't worry. It's just bombs."

On July 18, Bank Audi, a prominent Lebanese lending institution, asked his agency to create a "campaign for hope." Four weeks into fighting that has claimed more than 1,000 Lebanese lives, it is difficult to think of anything that has lost more market share in Lebanon.

The client even provided a crucial visual element: a child's drawing of the sun.

Chehab and company had a tight deadline: Bank Audi wanted the work completed in 24 hours. But only five of the shop's 55 employees were able to make it to the office because of the bombardments.

Despite these difficulties, they created an ad that combined the happy drawing of the sun with clouds and a caption in Arabic that reads: "No matter how many clouds accumulate, the sun will shine on Lebanon."

Within three days, the ad was sent to Arab satellite TV channels, Lebanese TV stations and placed on billboards in many parts of the nation.

Chehab said the work has been noticed. "You can't imagine the impact of this campaign on the people," he said. "They seem to think, 'If an institution can afford to do this now, then there is hope.'

"The effort has also inspired other institutions to start similar campaigns. "Since then all the banks have started doing campaigns to boost morale," Chehab said. "There's been a fantastic push of solidarity.

"It's that feeling of solidarity that Chehab feels is the driving force behind the concept of hope in the campaign. Torn for decades by civil war, people in Lebanon were more likely to think of themselves as Muslim, Christian, Shiite or Sunni than as Lebanese. Israel's latest battle with Hezbollah has changed that.

"This war made some solidarity in the country. People are reaching out to other people despite what they used to see as their differences," he said. "The Christians were feeling separate from the rest of the population until they got bombed. Then they said, 'Why the f- are they bombing us?'

"Chehab said that in Lebanon, where the private sector also fueled rebuilding efforts after the last war, the entrepreneurial spirit has not been quashed.

"One business group has said it would repair the bridge to the Christian area of Beirut to the north," he said. "Other businessmen get jealous and make pledges to top that."

Lebanon's economic losses.

2006-08-15T14:45:00.000+04:00

Counting the costs of Lebanon's economic losses over years of Israeli attacks.

1968-2006: 24,000 killed, 49,000 wounded, $4.5 billion in physical damage and $25 billion in lost GDP.

By Kamal Dib, Special to The Daily Star
Tuesday, August 15, 2006.

As Lebanon was recovering from a year of cruel assassinations and explosions, it was hit last month by yet another confrontation with Israel. The year 2005 saw the murders of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and a score of other personalities and bystanders, the mysterious bombing of several civilian targets and a decline in economic growth to almost zero percent.

However, no one could have imagined that Hizbullah's border incident with Israel would spiral into a catastrophic escalation of violence that would give millions of people in Lebanon only a few hours to run away or seek shelter. The depth of the current crisis is exemplified by the fact that in a matter of 48 hours Israel destroyed many of Lebanon's major roads and infrastructure, a feat that took them weeks to do in 1982.

The current Israeli onslaught has cost upward of 700 dead, 3,000 wounded and billions of dollars in damages, mostly to the country's infrastructure and private property.

The toll on economic activity is also telling. Lebanon had expected 2006 to be its best year for tourism since 1974, with estimates of 1.8 million tourists spending $2.5 billion. These expectations vanished into thin air, along with the exodus of tens of thousands of vacationers and expatriates, leading to economic burnout and commercial activity grinding to a standstill.

July 2006 will enter the annals as another episode in a series of Israeli attacks against Lebanon that started in 1968. Tables 1 and 2 show that Lebanon suffered damages valued at $4.6 billion as a result of Israeli attacks over the past 38 years. While Israel waged raids and mini-wars and one major war in 1982 against Palestinian organizations and later against Hizbullah, it never spared civilian installations and economic infrastructure (roads, bridges, power and water stations, communications), hospitals and schools, manufacturing and commercial establishments, etc.

It was obvious since the attack on Beirut International Airport in 1968 that caused the destruction of 13 Middle East Airlines commercial planes that Israel was systematic in its endeavor to cause as much economic damage to Lebanon, a country that was once the showcase of Arab economic genius. This endeavor went far beyond the limits of military confrontations, becoming an obsession in subsequent attacks.

Between 1968 and 2006, Israel has waged over 5,000 military attacks against Lebanon, including five invasions and/or major campaigns. Most of the economic damage was caused in the 1978 invasion ($418 million), the 1982 invasion ($1.7 billion) and the 2006 onslaught ($1.6 billion). The attacks harmed all economic sectors and targeted hundreds of thousands of housing units and private property at a cost of $1.6 billion, and of commercial establishments (damages valued at $938 million), manufacturing ($338 million), and airports, airline property and radars ($328 million).

The figures on Lebanese human losses due to the endless Israeli attacks, raids, incursions and invasions are abundant, from United Nations reports and the International Red Cross, aid agencies, media reports, government statements, hospital records and news agencies.
The largest single number of human losses occurred in 1982 when Israel launched a major invasion of Lebanon, killed over 19,000 Lebanese and wounded 32,000. In total, almost 24,000 Lebanese were killed during Israeli attacks between 1948 and 2006, and 49,000 were wounded.

Considering compensation only for implicit life earnings per person ($40,000 loss in income for the wounded, and $100,000 for each death), the minimum value of possible indemnities would reach $4.2 billion (this is an under-estimate as most insurance companies quote the actual value of a life policy at $1 million per person).

The casualty figures exclude Syrian and Palestinian dead and wounded inside Lebanon. For example, news agencies cite the killing of 9,000 Palestinians in the 1982 invasion, while Syrian government sources cite the loss of 6,000 soldiers in that war.

While the pre-1968 period was relatively quiet, the rise of the Palestinian armed presence in southern Lebanon signaled a new situation, whereby Israel made it a standard policy to wage disproportionate raids against Lebanon in response to the slightest commando activities against it.

This was Israel's way of collective punishment to create a schism between the Lebanese people and the PLO and to hold the Lebanese government responsible for Palestinian guerrilla activity inside Israel.

Between 1968 and 1974, Israel waged 3,000 attacks, killing 880 civilians and wounding 4,000 others. In 1975-77, it waged 170 attacks that killed 182 Lebanese. In the 1978 invasion (dubbed the Litani Operation), Israel killed 1,168 civilians and wounded 5000. Similar losses were reported for 1979-1981 that preceded the largest invasion in 1982.

In the period of 1968-2006, all major incursions caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, especially from the southern regions to safer areas up north. For example, the current crisis forced almost a million Lebanese to leave their homes, which means loss of safety and security and hardships in obtaining shelter, medicine, food and the amenities of life.

Kamal Dib is a Canadian economist of Lebanese origin kamaldib@videotron.ca. He is the author of several books on the Middle East, most recently "Warlords and Merchants."

Israel's verdict: we lost the war.

2006-08-15T12:31:00.000+04:00

How is loss measured? Is it not by the amount of innocent lives lost? And by the amount of casualties? And by the destruction caused to lives and livelihoods?

Surely we cannot measure loss in terms of how much damage one side has inflicted on another, ignoring the dire consequences.

God help us in the face of humiliated and angry and hurt beasts, and in the same breath, from egotistical and inflated actors.

By Donald Macintyre in Metulla, Israel.
Published: 15 August 2006

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was obliged to admit "shortcomings" in the 34-day-old conflict in Lebanon yesterday as he launched what may prove a protracted fight for his own political survival.

Mr Olmert's admission in a stormy Knesset session came in the face of devastating poll figures showing a majority of the Israeli public believes none or only a very small part of the goals of the war had been achieved.

Adding insult to injury, the leader of Hizbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, crowed on television that his guerrillas had achieved a "strategic historic victory" over Israel.

The Prime Minister, who was repeatedly heckled by opposition MPs during his address, insisted the international commitments in Friday night's UN resolution would "change fundamentally" the balance of forces on the country's northern border.

But, facing his first major political crisis since winning the election five months ago, he acknowledged "the overall responsibility for this operation lies with me, the Prime Minister. I am not asking to share this with anyone." A number of Knesset members including the Israeli Arab Ahmed Tibi, a furious opponent of the war, were ejected from the chamber.

The opening of what is likely to prove a bitter post-mortem came as the two sides began an uneasy truce. The conflict is estimated to have cost well over 1,000 Lebanese lives as well as those of 156 Israelis - civilians and soldiers.

The fragility of the ceasefire was underlined by four incidents in which Israeli troops shot dead six Hizbollah fighters after the ceasefire began at 8am yesterday. The Israeli military insisted the incidents were within guidelines permitting troops to open fire when threatened and did not jeopardise the truce.

Promising that the government "will have to examine ourselves at all levels," Mr Olmert fought to pre-empt a probable campaign by the political right by declaring that Hizbollah had been dealt a "harsh blow". He added that the guerrilla group was no longer "a state within a state" or a "terrorist organisation that is allowed to act inside a state as an arm of the axis of evil", referring to Syria and Iran.

While refraining from a direct personal attack on Mr Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right- wing Likud opposition, lost little time in declaring "there were many failures, failures in identifying the threat, failures in preparing to meet the threat, failures in the management of the war, failures in the management of the home front."

Critics from right and left were fortified by a Globes Smith poll showing, remarkably given the degree to which the army is embedded in Israeli society, that 52 per cent of electors believed the Israel Defence Forces had been unsuccessful in its Lebanon offensive as opposed to 44 per cent who believed it did well.

Mr Netanyahu also pointedly chose to attack unilateral withdrawals - the issue on which Mr Olmert fought his election in March. Mr Netanyahu said: "We left Lebanon to the last centimetre and they are firing. We left Gaza to the last centimetre and they are firing."

Meanwhile, the Hizbollah leader said he believes the Lebanese army and international troops are "incapable of protecting Lebanon". He also said it was the "wrong time" for a public discussion on disarming the guerrilla group.

At the eastern end of the northern border, heavy artillery barrages and repeated tank machine-gun fire continued yesterday up to the ceasefire deadline.
But as the artillery batteries fell silent and firing stopped, there was a final single explosion at about 8.05pm, sending a plume of grey smoke upwards before the uneasy calm began.

Amid a wave of angry civilian reactions in Israel after more than a month in which an estimated 3,500 rockets were fired into northern Israel, Sam Echahid, the manager of a local supermarket, was asked whether he thought the ceasefire would hold. He said: "I hope not. We haven't done anything yet."

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was obliged to admit "shortcomings" in the 34-day-old conflict in Lebanon yesterday as he launched what may prove a protracted fight for his own political survival.

Mr Olmert's admission in a stormy Knesset session came in the face of devastating poll figures showing a majority of the Israeli public believes none or only a very small part of the goals of the war had been achieved.

Adding insult to injury, the leader of Hizbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, crowed on television that his guerrillas had achieved a "strategic historic victory" over Israel.

The Prime Minister, who was repeatedly heckled by opposition MPs during his address, insisted the international commitments in Friday night's UN resolution would "change fundamentally" the balance of forces on the country's northern border.

But, facing his first major political crisis since winning the election five months ago, he acknowledged "the overall responsibility for this operation lies with me, the Prime Minister. I am not asking to share this with anyone." A number of Knesset members including the Israeli Arab Ahmed Tibi, a furious opponent of the war, were ejected from the chamber.

The opening of what is likely to prove a bitter post-mortem came as the two sides began an uneasy truce. The conflict is estimated to have cost well over 1,000 Lebanese lives as well as those of 156 Israelis - civilians and soldiers.

The fragility of the ceasefire was underlined by four incidents in which Israeli troops shot dead six Hizbollah fighters after the ceasefire began at 8am yesterday. The Israeli military insisted the incidents were within guidelines permitting troops to open fire when threatened and did not jeopardise the truce.

Promising that the government "will have to examine ourselves at all levels," Mr Olmert fought to pre-empt a probable campaign by the political right by declaring that Hizbollah had been dealt a "harsh blow". He added that the guerrilla group was no longer "a state within a state" or a "terrorist organisation that is allowed to act inside a state as an arm of the axis of evil", referring to Syria and Iran.

While refraining from a direct personal attack on Mr Olmert, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right- wing Likud opposition, lost little time in declaring "there were many failures, failures in identifying the threat, failures in preparing to meet the threat, failures in the management of the war, failures in the management of the home front."

Critics from right and left were fortified by a Globes Smith poll showing, remarkably given the degree to which the army is embedded in Israeli society, that 52 per cent of electors believed the Israel Defence Forces had been unsuccessful in its Lebanon offensive as opposed to 44 per cent who believed it did well.

Mr Netanyahu also pointedly chose to attack unilateral withdrawals - the issue on which Mr Olmert fought his election in March. Mr Netanyahu said: "We left Lebanon to the last centimetre and they are firing. We left Gaza to the last centimetre and they are firing."

Meanwhile, the Hizbollah leader said he believes the Lebanese army and international troops are "incapable of protecting Lebanon". He also said it was the "wrong time" for a public discussion on disarming the guerrilla group.

At the eastern end of the northern border, heavy artillery barrages and repeated tank machine-gun fire continued yesterday up to the ceasefire deadline.

But as the artillery batteries fell silent and firing stopped, there was a final single explosion at about 8.05pm, sending a plume of grey smoke upwards before the uneasy calm began.

Amid a wave of angry civilian reactions in Israel after more than a month in which an estimated 3,500 rockets were fired into northern Israel, Sam Echahid, the manager of a local supermarket, was asked whether he thought the ceasefire would hold. He said: "I hope not. We haven't done anything yet."

The blogs that showed the world.

2006-08-15T10:29:00.000+04:00

During the last month of the war against Lebanon, blogs have been integral to communicating the plight of the Lebanese, and showing the world what has been taking place inside Lebanon.

Most importantly they have kept the Lebanese community worldwide connected and have provided an outlet to vent and share and express the confusion and other emotions.

In their own way, they too have been part of the army protecting the Lebanese. And what a fine job they've done.

www.bloggingbeirut.com
www.beirutupdate.blogspot.com
www.beirutlive.blogspot.com
www.thelebanonchronicle.blogspot.com
www.mazenkerblog.blogspot.com

A new dawn.

2006-08-14T18:54:00.000+04:00

The last month has been an emotional rollercoaster, too use that old cliche'. Sadness, anger, unlived summer dreams, frustration, disbelief, helplessness, depression, frailty, weakness, confusion, hope are a few of the emotions that I can articulate in words.

Most of the time I have felt like a small being in the face of huge media machines and in the face of evilness. Biased and one-sided reporting trying to bend the truth, propoganda. Too many opinions. Everyone is an expert. Bureacracy. Procrastination. Dead bodies and destruction don't mean more than an eloquent news story to most - except for the poor lady whose husband wont be returning home. Or for the poor girl who lost her mother and 4 siblings. How can we even begin to understand their pain.

I have been glued to the television, the internet, blogs, radio, newspapers wanting to stay informed of the latest developments, the latest opinions and analysis and, it has made me sick. Too much information achieves nothing if I can't do anything about it. And it makes me sick when the world just stands there and watches idle. Too slow to react. Or perhaps even more perverse - not willing to react until a certain side has achieved its stated aims - irrespective of the human cost.

What does this war say about humanity and the price we are willing to pay for our selfish interests? and for power? Who decides who is right and wrong? Who cares! Why can't we look at things from somebody else's percpective and settle our differences by talking?

Are we deserving of the natural beauty and bounty that has been created for us to dwell in?

Why the hypocracy? Why the double standards? Why does the Israeli PM have the right to say "We will continue to pursue them everywhere and at all times...we have no intention of asking anyone's permission." (Haaretz 14th August) who does he think he is? Anticipating that another war with Hezbollah may come in the future, he said "Israel would learn the lessons of this war and do better" (Haaretz 14th August) What exactly does better mean? Better precision? Better death rate? Better destruction? Better for whom?

Dear Lebanon, you are but a small land over which empires have fought over for centuries. Impatiently, they try to capture your pride and glamor and style but they do not realise that such things do not lie in your rich soil, but in your spirit, which they cannot capture.

This war was barbaric. The innocent human life taken and the destruction of people's livelihoods and homes and neighbourhoods is shocking, and pitiful.

I pray for a new dawn in Lebanon - not my country of birth, nor my country of upbringing, but a country I feel a connection with. And I hope that the Lebanese in this era have the capacity to rise again, in peace and in maturity just like the Lebanese of past eras rose before.

Once pristine beaches.

2006-08-14T17:59:00.000+04:00

The result of Israel's bombing of oil tankers in Beirut.

30,000 tonnes of oil have spilled into the Mediterranean with disasterous consequences for marine life including fish, crabs and endangered turtles.

Who will hold Israel accountable for this vandalism which affects not only Lebanon, but the entire region, and the world's fragile ecosystem?

War crimes?

2006-08-13T13:36:00.000+04:00

Beirut, Lebanon - How soon must we use the words "war crime"?
By Robert Fisk,
The Independent, Saturday, 22 July, 2006.

How many children must be scattered in the rubble of Israeli air attacks before we reject the obscene phrase "collateral damage" and start talking about prosecution for crimes against humanity?

The child whose dead body lies like a rag doll beside the cars which were supposedly taking her and her family to safety is a symbol of the latest Lebanon war; she was hurled from the vehicle in which she and her family were traveling in southern Lebanon as they fled their village - on Israel's own instructions. Because her parents were apparently killed in the same Israeli air attack, her name is still unknown. Not an unknown warrior, but an unknown child.

The story of her death, however, is well documented. On Saturday, the inhabitants of the tiny border village of Marwaheen were ordered by Israeli troops - apparently using a bullhorn - to leave their homes by 6pm. Marwaheen lies closest to the spot where Hizbollah guerrillas broke through the frontier wire a week ago to capture two Israeli soldiers and kill three others, the attack which provoked this latest cruel war in Lebanon. The villagers obeyed the Israeli orders and initially appealed to local UN troops of the Ghanaian battalion for protection.

But the Ghanaian soldiers, obeying guidelines set down by the UN's headquarters in New York in 1996, refused to permit the Lebanese civilians to enter their base. By terrible irony, the UN's rules had been drawn up after their soldiers gave protection to civilians during an Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon in 1996 in which 106 Lebanese, more than half of them children, were slaughtered when the Israelis shelled the UN compound at Qana, in which they had been given sanctuary.

So the people of Marwaheen set off for the north in a convoy of cars which only minutes later, close to the village of Tel Harfa, were attacked by an Israeli F-16 fighter-bomber. It bombed all the cars and killed at least 20 of the civilians travelling in them, many of them women and children. Twelve people were burnt alive in their vehicles but others, including the child who lies like a rag doll near the charred civilian convoy, whose photograph was taken - at great risk - by an Associated Press photographer, Nasser Nasser, were blown clear of the cars by the blast of the bombs and fell into fields and a valley near the scene of the attack. There has been no apology or expression of regret from Israel for these deaths.

The innocent continued to die yesterday in Israeli air attacks across Lebanon. Five civilians were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house near the town of Nabatea. Three members of the Hamed family were killed along with their Sri Lankan maid. In the village of Srifa, in the south, Israeli air strikes flattened 15 houses which were homes to at least 23 people but - with no lifting vehicles able to reach that part of the country - there was no way of rescuing anyone alive trapped in the buildings.

The Lebanese civil authorities, however, were able to give names to the dead after an Israeli air raid on the Bekaa Valley village of Nabi Chit; they included Ali Suleiman; Daoud Hazima; Khadija Moussawi and her children Bilal, Talal and Yasmine; Maouffaq Diab; Ahmed and Khairallah Mouawad; Mustafa Jroud and Bushra Shuqr. At least three of the names were female. Another four civilians were killed in an air raid on the village of Loussi in eastern Lebanon.

The Israelis constantly boast of their "pin-point" or "surgical" precision in air attacks. If this is true, then there are far too many civilians being killed in the Lebanese bloodbath to make every one of them an accident. And since Israel's target list now includes obviously civilian targets - deliberately bombed to punish the civilian population - the evidence is mounting that these air raids are intended to kill the innocent as well as the Hizbollah guerrillas whom Israel claims to be fighting.

True, the Hizbollah are killing civilians in Israel, but their missiles are inaccurate and the West, which has done no more than mildly disapprove of Israel's retaliatory onslaught, must surely expect higher standards of the Israeli armed forces than of the men whom both Israel and President George Bush describe as "terrorists".

Why, for example, did the Israelis attack and destroy the headquarters of the Liban-Lait company in the Bekaa Valley, the largest milk factory in Lebanon? Why did they bomb out the factory of the main importer for Proctor and Gamble products in Lebanon, based in Bchmoun? Why did they destroy a paper box factory outside Beirut? And why did Israeli planes attack a convoy of new ambulances being brought into Lebanon from Syria yesterday, vehicles which were the gift of the medical authorities of the United Arab Emirates? The ambulances were clearly marked as a relief aid convoy, according to an Emirates official. Were all these "terrorist" targets? Was the little girl in the field at Tel Harfa a "terrorist" target?

An example of Israel's lack of care in targeting Lebanon came yesterday morning when an Israeli plane fired four missiles into a disused parking lot in the Christian district of Ashrafieh in Beirut. Their targets turned out to be two derelict water drilling lorries which were standing tyre-deep in weeds. Were the tubes on the back of the lorries supposed to be missile launchers? And if so, who imagined that Hizbollah would ever try to conceal such weapons in a Christian area of Beirut where Hizbollah believe many of Israel's own collaborators live.

In Beirut and Nabatea, Lebanese security men claim to have arrested "collaborators" who were "painting" houses and cars with phosphorus to guide in Israeli jets to destroy them. At the same time, the Lebanese Minister of Finance, Jihad Azour, stated that 45 bridges had been destroyed across Lebanon and 60,000 families - 500,000 civilians - have been displaced.

Thousands of foreigners - many of them Lebanese holding dual citizenship - continued to leave the country by bus and ship yesterday, including hundreds of Britons who started the evacuation on Monday in HMS Gloucester. Americans were leaving by sea, although a French security company in Amman - SPO Middle East - was reported to have been hired by the US to evacuate its citizens by bus at a cost of $3,000 (£1,700) a head.

They, of course, are the lucky ones, who will finish their journeys in Damascus or Cyprus rather than beside a burnt convoy at Tel Harfa.

Stop the Band-Aid Treatment.

2006-08-13T13:12:00.000+04:00

We Need Policies for a Real, Lasting Middle East Peace.

By Jimmy Carter,
The Washington Post, Tuesday August 1, 2006.

The Middle East is a tinderbox, with some key players on all sides waiting for every opportunity to destroy their enemies with bullets, bombs and missiles. One of the special vulnerabilities of Israel, and a repetitive cause of violence, is the holding of prisoners. Militant Palestinians and Lebanese know that a captured Israeli soldier or civilian is either a cause of conflict or a valuable bargaining chip for prisoner exchange. This assumption is based on a number of such trades, including 1,150 Arabs, mostly Palestinians, for three Israeli soldiers in 1985; 123 Lebanese for the remains of two Israeli soldiers in 1996; and 433 Palestinians and others for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers in 2004.

This stratagem precipitated the renewed violence that erupted in June when Palestinians dug a tunnel under the barrier that surrounds Gaza and assaulted some Israeli soldiers, killing two and capturing one. They offered to exchange the soldier for the release of 95 women and 313 children who are among almost 10,000 Arabs in Israeli prisons, but this time Israel rejected a swap and attacked Gaza in an attempt to free the soldier and stop rocket fire into Israel. The resulting destruction brought reconciliation between warring Palestinian factions and support for them throughout the Arab world.

Hezbollah militants then killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others, and insisted on Israel's withdrawal from disputed territory and an exchange for some of the several thousand incarcerated Lebanese. With American backing, Israeli bombs and missiles rained down on Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets from Syria and Iran struck northern Israel.

It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response. The result instead has been that broad Arab and worldwide support has been rallied for these groups, while condemnation of both Israel and the United States has intensified.

Israel belatedly announced, but did not carry out, a two-day cessation in bombing Lebanon, responding to the global condemnation of an air attack on the Lebanese village of Qana, where 57 civilians were killed this past weekend and where 106 died from the same cause 10 years ago. As before there were expressions of "deep regret," a promise of "immediate investigation" and the explanation that dropped leaflets had warned families in the region to leave their homes. The urgent need in Lebanon is that Israeli attacks stop, the nation's regular military forces control the southern region, Hezbollah cease as a separate fighting force, and future attacks against Israel be prevented. Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese territory, including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners. Yet yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected a cease-fire.

These are ambitious hopes, but even if the U.N. Security Council adopts and implements a resolution that would lead to such an eventual solution, it will provide just another band-aid and temporary relief. Tragically, the current conflict is part of the inevitably repetitive cycle of violence that results from the absence of a comprehensive settlement in the Middle East, exacerbated by the almost unprecedented six-year absence of any real effort to achieve such a goal.

Leaders on both sides ignore strong majorities that crave peace, allowing extremist-led violence to preempt all opportunities for building a political consensus. Traumatized Israelis cling to the false hope that their lives will be made safer by incremental unilateral withdrawals from occupied areas, while Palestinians see their remnant territories reduced to little more than human dumping grounds surrounded by a provocative "security barrier" that embarrasses Israel's friends and that fails to bring safety or stability.

The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. As were all previous administrations since the founding of Israel, U.S. government leaders must be in the forefront of achieving this long-delayed goal.

A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S. assertions. Direct engagement with the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority and the government in Damascus will be necessary if secure negotiated settlements are to be achieved. Failure to address the issues and leaders involved risks the creation of an arc of even greater instability running from Jerusalem through Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran.

The people of the Middle East deserve peace and justice, and we in the international community owe them our strong leadership and support.

Former president Carter is the founder of the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta.

The love of Beirut (Hawa Beirut).

2006-08-10T22:59:00.000+04:00

Lyrics & music: Rahbani Brothers
Performance: Fairuz

They put up road-blocks / they dimmed all the signs / they planted cannons / they mined the squares / where are you love / after you we became / the love that screams / we became the distances.

We longed for joyful days / the days of staying up on the road / the long walks / we miss the long drives / the rendezvous at the old restaurant.

O love of Beirut / O love of days / They will come back Beirut / the days will come back.

It is the second summer / the moon is broken / is it true you may forget me / my defeated love / I went back to my house / my house I didn't find / only smoke and twisted beams / no rose and no fence.

They are disappearing like the migrating 'snoono' bird / under the stars of the night they are scattered / I wonder where the friends are / where are the tears and the emotions?

O love of Beirut / O love of days / They will come back Beirut / the days will come back.

www.fairuzonline.com
www.fairouz.com

Side by side in Beirut.

2006-08-10T20:21:00.000+04:00

A Mosque Minaret and a Church Tower.

Perfect harmony in Beirut.

UN campaign

2006-08-09T18:11:00.000+04:00

End this tragedy now.

2006-08-09T17:45:00.000+04:00

Israel Must Be Made to Respect International Law.

Speech given by Fouad Siniora - Prime Minister of Lebanon,
Wednesday, August 9, 2006.

BEIRUT.

A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic. We in Lebanon call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support my country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, which it has repeatedly and willfully violated.

As the world watches, Israel has besieged and ravaged our country, created a humanitarian and environmental disaster, and shattered our infrastructure and economy, putting an intolerable strain on our social and economic systems. Fuel, food and medical equipment are in short supply; homes, factories and warehouses have been destroyed; roads severed, bridges smashed and airports disabled.

The damage to infrastructure alone is running into the billions of dollars, as are the losses to owners of private property, and the long-term direct and indirect costs due to lost revenue in tourism, agriculture and industrial sectors are expected to be many more billions. Lebanon's well-known achievements in 15 years of postwar development have been wiped out in a matter of days by Israel's deadly military might.

For all this carnage and death, and on behalf of all Lebanese, we demand an international inquiry into Israel's criminal actions in Lebanon and insist that Israel pay compensation for its wanton destruction.

Israel seems to think that its attacks will sow discord among the Lebanese. This will never happen. Israel should know that the Lebanese people will remain steadfast and united in the face of this latest Israeli aggression -- its seventh invasion -- just as they were during nearly two decades of brutal occupation. The people's will to resist grows ever stronger with each village demolished and each massacre committed.

On July 25, at the international conference for Lebanon in Rome, I proposed a comprehensive seven-point plan to end the war. It was well received by the conference and got the unanimous and full backing of the Lebanese Council of Ministers, in which Hezbollah is represented, as well as of the speaker of parliament and a majority of parliamentary blocs. Representatives of diverse segments of Lebanese civil society have come out strongly in favor, as has the Islamic-Christian Summit, representing all the religious confessions, ensuring a broad national consensus and preserving our delicate social equilibrium.

The plan, which also received the full support of the 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, included an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive cease-fire and called for:

The release of Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and detainees through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The withdrawal of the Israeli army behind the "blue line."
A commitment from the U.N. Security Council to place the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba Hills areas under U.N. jurisdiction until border delineation and Lebanese sovereignty over them are fully settled. Further, Israel must surrender all maps of remaining land mines in southern Lebanon to the United Nations.
Extension of the Lebanese government's authority over its territory through its legitimate armed forces, with no weapons or authority other than that of the Lebanese state, as stipulated in the Taif accord. We have indicated that the Lebanese armed forces are ready and able to deploy in southern Lebanon, alongside the U.N. forces there, the moment Israel pulls back to the international border.
The supplementing of the U.N. international force operating in southern Lebanon and its enhancement in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, as needed, to undertake urgent humanitarian and relief work and guarantee stability and security in the south so that those who fled their homes can return.
Action by the United Nations on the necessary measures to once again put into effect the 1949 armistice agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel and to ensure adherence to its provisions, as well as to explore possible amendments to or development of those provisions as necessary.
The commitment of the international community to support Lebanon on all levels, including relief, reconstruction and development needs.

As part of this comprehensive plan, and empowered by strong domestic political support and the unanimous backing of the cabinet, the Lebanese government decided to deploy the Lebanese armed forces in southern Lebanon as the sole domestic military force in the area, alongside U.N. forces there, the moment Israel pulls back to the international border.

Israel responded by slaughtering more civilians in the biblical town of Qana. Such horrible scenes have been repeated daily for nearly four weeks and continue even as I write these words.

The resolution to this war must respect international law and U.N. resolutions, not just those selected by Israel, a state that deserves its reputation as a pariah because of its consistent disdain for and rejection of international law and the wishes of the international community for over half a century.

Lebanon calls, once again, on the United Nations to bring about an immediate cease-fire to relieve the beleaguered people of Lebanon. Only then can the root causes of this war -- Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories and its perennial threat to Lebanon's security, as well as Lebanon's struggle to regain full sovereignty over all its territory -- be addressed.

I believe that a political resolution rooted in international law and based on these seven points will lead to long-term stability. If Israel would realize that the peoples of the Middle East cannot be cowed into submission, that they aspire only to live in freedom and dignity, it could also be a stepping stone to a final solution of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, which has plagued our region for 60 years.

The 2002 Arab summit in Beirut, which called for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace based on the principle of land for peace, showed the way forward. A political solution cannot, however, be implemented as long as Israel continues to occupy Arab land in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights and as long as it wages war on innocent people in Lebanon and Palestine. As Jawaharlal Nehru said, "the only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction."

Enough destruction, dispossession, desperation, displacement and death! Lebanon must be allowed to reclaim its position in this troubled region as a beacon of freedom and democracy where justice and the rule of law prevail, and as a refuge for the oppressed where moderation, tolerance and enlightenment triumph.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company.

Time.

2006-08-01T09:34:00.001+04:00

1. By (the token of) time (through the ages) 2. Verily man is in loss
3. Except those who believe and do righteous deeds and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to patience.

Holy Quran, Surah Al`Asr: 103:1-3

Perfect harmony

2006-08-01T09:28:00.000+04:00

"We all know that people are the same wherever you go, there is good and bad in everyone."

Stevie Wonder - Ebony & Ivory.

Paradise Lost

2006-07-22T18:03:00.000+04:00

Robert Fisk's Elegy for Beirut.

The Independent (London)
19 July 2006.

Elegant buildings lie in ruins. The heady scent of gardenias gives way to the acrid stench of bombed-out oil installations. And everywhere terrified people are scrambling to get out of a city that seems tragically doomed to chaos and destruction. As Beirut - 'the Paris of the East' - is defiled yet again, Robert Fisk, a resident for 30 years, asks: how much more punishment can it take?

In the year 551, the magnificent, wealthy city of Berytus - headquarters of the imperial East Mediterranean Roman fleet - was struck by a massive earthquake. In its aftermath, the sea withdrew several miles and the survivors - ancestors of the present-day Lebanese - walked out on the sands to loot the long-sunken merchant ships revealed in front of them.

That was when a tidal wall higher than a tsunami returned to swamp the city and kill them all. So savagely was the old Beirut damaged that the Emperor Justinian sent gold from Constantinople as compensation to every family left alive.

Some cities seem forever doomed. When the Crusaders arrived at Beirut on their way to Jerusalem in the 11th century, they slaughtered every man, woman and child in the city. In the First World War, Ottoman Beirut suffered a terrible famine; the Turkish army had commandeered all the grain and the Allied powers blockaded the coast. I still have some ancient postcards I bought here 30 years ago of stick-like children standing in an orphanage, naked and abandoned.

An American woman living in Beirut in 1916 described how she "passed women and children lying by the roadside with closed eyes and ghastly, pale faces. It was a common thing to find people searching the garbage heaps for orange peel, old bones or other refuse, and eating them greedily when found. Everywhere women could be seen seeking eatable weeds among the grass along the roads..."

How does this happen to Beirut? For 30 years, I've watched this place die and then rise from the grave and then die again, its apartment blocks pitted with so many bullets they looked like Irish lace, its people massacring each other.

I lived here through 15 years of civil war that took 150,000 lives, and two Israeli invasions and years of Israeli bombardments that cost the lives of a further 20,000 of its people. I have seen them armless, legless, headless, knifed, bombed and splashed across the walls of houses. Yet they are a fine, educated, moral people whose generosity amazes every foreigner, whose gentleness puts any Westerner to shame, and whose suffering we almost always ignore.

They look like us, the people of Beirut. They have light-coloured skin and speak beautiful English and French. They travel the world. Their women are gorgeous and their food exquisite. But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis - in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside - tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity? We say that they started this latest war, and we compare their appalling casualties - 240 in all of Lebanon by last night - with Israel's 24 dead, as if the figures are the same.

And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel 's "disproportionate" response to the capture of its soldiers by Hizbollah.

I walked through the deserted city centre of Beirut yesterday and it reminded more than ever of a film lot, a place of dreams too beautiful to last, a phoenix from the ashes of civil war whose plumage was so brightly coloured that it blinded its own people. This part of the city - once a Dresden of ruins - was rebuilt by Rafiq Hariri, the prime minister who was murdered scarcely a mile away on 14 February last year.

The wreckage of that bomb blast, an awful precursor to the present war in which his inheritance is being vandalised by the Israelis, still stands beside the Mediterranean, waiting for the last UN investigator to look for clues to the assassination - an investigator who has long ago abandoned this besieged city for the safety of Cyprus.

At the empty Etoile restaurant - best snails and cappuccino in Beirut , where Hariri once dined Jacques Chirac - I sat on the pavement and watched the parliamentary guard still patrolling the façade of the French-built emporium that houses what is left of Lebanon 's democracy. So many of these streets were built by Parisians under the French mandate and they have been exquisitely restored, their mock Arabian doorways bejewelled with marble Roman columns dug from the ancient Via Maxima a few metres away.

Hariri loved this place and, taking Chirac for a beer one day, he caught sight of me sitting at a table. "Ah Robert, come over here," he roared and then turned to Chirac like a cat that was about to eat a canary. "I want to introduce you, Jacques, to the reporter who said I couldn't rebuild Beirut!"

And now it is being un-built. The Martyr Rafiq Hariri International Airport has been attacked three times by the Israelis, its glistening halls and shopping malls vibrating to the missiles that thunder into the runways and fuel depots. Hariri's wonderful transnational highway viaduct has been broken by Israeli bombers. Most of his motorway bridges have been destroyed. The Roman-style lighthouse has been smashed by a missile from an Apache helicopter. Only this small jewel of a restaurant in the centre of Beirut has been spared. So far.

It is the slums of Haret Hreik and Ghobeiri and Shiyah that have been levelled and "rubble-ised" and pounded to dust, sending a quarter of a million Shia Muslims to seek sanctuary in schools and abandoned parks across the city. Here, indeed, was the headquarters of Hizbollah, another of those "centres of world terror" which the West keeps discovering in Muslim lands. Here lived Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Party of God's leader, a ruthless, caustic, calculating man; and Sayad Mohamed Fadlallah, among the wisest and most eloquent of clerics; and many of Hizbollah's top military planners - including, no doubt, the men who planned over many months the capture of the two Israeli soldiers last Wednesday.

But did the tens of thousands of poor who live here deserve this act of mass punishment? For a country that boasts of its pin-point accuracy - a doubtful notion in any case, but that's not the issue - what does this act of destruction tell us about Israel? Or about ourselves?

In a modern building in an undamaged part of Beirut , I come, quite by chance, across a well known and prominent Hizbollah figure, open-neck white shirt, dark suit, clean shoes. "We will go on if we have to for days or weeks or months or..." And he counts these awful statistics off on the fingers of his left hand. "Believe me, we have bigger surprises still to come for the Israelis - much bigger, you will see. Then we will get our prisoners and it will take just a few small concessions."

I walk outside, feeling as if I have been beaten over the head. Over the wall opposite there is purple bougainvillaea and white jasmine and a swamp of gardenias. The Lebanese love flowers, their colour and scent, and Beirut is draped in trees and bushes that smell like paradise.

As for the huddled masses from the powder of the bombed-out southern slums of Haret Hreik, I found hundreds of them yesterday, sitting under trees and lying on the parched grass beside an ancient fountain donated to the city of Beirut by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid. How empires fall.

Far away, across the Mediterranean, two American helicopters from the USS Iwo Jima could be seen, heading through the mist and smoke towards the US embassy bunker complex at Awkar to evacuate more citizens of the American Empire. There was not a word from that same empire to help the people lying
in the park, to offer them food or medical aid.

And across them all has spread a dark grey smoke that works its way through the entire city, the fires of oil terminals and burning buildings turning into a cocktail of sulphurous air that moves below our doors and through our windows. I smell it when I wake in the morning. Half the people of Beirut are coughing in this filth, breathing their own destruction as they contemplate their dead.

The anger that any human soul should feel at such suffering and loss was expressed so well by Lebanon's greatest poet, the mystic Khalil Gibran, when he wrote of the half million Lebanese who died in the 1916 famine, most of them residents of Beirut:

My people died of hunger, and he who
Did not perish from starvation was
Butchered with the sword;
They perished from hunger
In a land rich with milk and honey.
They died because the vipers and
Sons of vipers spat out poison into
The space where the Holy Cedars and
The roses and the jasmine breathe
Their fragrance.

And the sword continues to cut its way through Beirut . When part of an aircraft - perhaps the wing-tip of an F-16 hit by a missile, although the Israelis deny this - came streaking out of the sky over the eastern suburbs at the weekend, I raced to the scene to find a partly decapitated driver in his car and three Lebanese soldiers from the army's logistics unit. These are the tough, brave non-combat soldiers of Kfar Chim, who have been mending power and water lines these past six days to keep Beirut alive.

I knew one of them. "Hello Robert, be quick because I think the Israelis will bomb again but we'll show you everything we can." And they took me through the fires to show me what they could of the wreckage, standing around me to protect me.

And a few hours later, the Israelis did come back, as the men of the small logistics unit were going to bed, and they bombed the barracks and killed 10 soldiers, including those three kind men who looked after me amid the fires of Kfar Chim.

And why? Be sure - the Israelis know what they are hitting. That's why they killed nine soldiers near Tripoli when they bombed the military radio antennas. But a logistics unit? Men whose sole job was to mend electricity lines? And then it dawns on me. Beirut is to die. It is to be starved of electricity now that the power station in Jiyeh is on fire. No one is to be allowed to keep Beirut alive. So those poor men had to be liquidated.

Beirutis are tough people and are not easily moved. But at the end of last week, many of them were overcome by a photograph in their daily papers of a small girl, discarded like a broken flower in a field near Ter Harfa, her feet curled up, her hand resting on her torn blue pyjamas, her eyes - beneath long, soft hair - closed, turned away from the camera. She had been another "terrorist" target of Israel and several people, myself among them, saw a frightening similarity between this picture and the photograph of a Polish girl lying dead in a field beside her weeping sister in 1939.

I go home and flick through my files, old pictures of the Israeli invasion of 1982. There are more photographs of dead children, of broken bridges. "Israelis Threaten to Storm Beirut", says one headline. "Israelis Retaliate". " Lebanon At War". " Beirut Under Siege". "Massacre at Sabra and Chatila".

Yes, how easily we forget these earlier slaughters. Up to 1,700 Palestinians were butchered at Sabra and Chatila by Israel 's proxy Christian militia allies in September of 1982 while Israeli troops - as they later testified to Israel 's own court of inquiry - watched the killings. I was there. I stopped counting the corpses when I reached 100. Many of the women had been raped before being knifed or shot.

Yet when I was fleeing the bombing of Ghobeiri with my driver Abed last week, we swept right past the entrance of the camp, the very spot where I saw the first murdered Palestinians. And we did not think of them. We did not remember them. They were dead in Beirut and we were trying to stay alive in Beirut , as I have been trying to stay alive here for 30 years.

I am back on the sea coast when my mobile phone rings. It is an Israeli woman calling me from the United States , the author of a fine novel about the Palestinians. "Robert, please take care," she says. "I am so, so sorry about what is being done to the Lebanese. It is unforgivable. I pray for the Lebanese people, and the Palestinians, and the Israelis." I thank her for her thoughtfulness and the graceful, generous way she condemned this slaughter.

Then, on my balcony - a glance to check the location of the Israeli gunboat far out in the sea-smog - I find older clippings. This is from an English paper in 1840, when Beirut was a great Ottoman city. "Beyrouth" was the dateline. "Anarchy is now the order of the day, our properties and personal safety are endangered, no satisfaction can be obtained, and crimes are committed with impunity. Several Europeans have quitted their houses and suspended their affairs, in order to find protection in more peaceable countries."

On my dining-room wall, I remember, there is a hand-painted lithograph of French troops arriving in Beirut in 1842 to protect the Christian Maronites from the Druze. They are camping in the Jardin des Pins, which will later become the site of the French embassy where, only a few hours ago, I saw French men and women registering for their evacuation. And outside the window, I hear again the whisper of Israeli jets, hidden behind the smoke that now drifts 20 miles out to sea.

Fairouz, the most popular of Lebanese singers, was to have performed at this year's Baalbek festival, cancelled now like all Lebanon's festivals of music, dance, theatre and painting. One of her most popular songs is dedicated to her native city:

To Beirut - peace to Beirut with all my heart
And kisses - to the sea and clouds,
To the rock of a city that looks like an old sailor's face.
From the soul of her people she makes wine,
From their sweat, she makes bread and jasmine.
So how did it come to taste of smoke and fire?

A moment.

2006-07-08T21:56:00.000+04:00

Beirut.

2006-07-03T12:14:00.000+04:00

Love is something undefined. It is a feeling that runs through your veins and tingles your spine. Love is charm and mystery and sensuality. Beirut is charming and mysterious and sensual. It holds me captive in its spell.

Live by words.

2006-07-03T11:37:00.000+04:00

Words I like
These are words that change a perspective. They lead to the creation of something new.

Ideapreneur.
Imaginate.

Words I don't like.
These are words that give a technical name to what intelligent humans do instinctively. They add nothing to the world except defining processes for the lazy.

Networking.
Change management.

Words can conquer the minds and hearts of humanity.

Life's grand mission.

2006-06-20T16:50:00.000+04:00

Save the world, or at least save your soul.

The 5 senses guide to living.

2006-06-20T11:57:00.001+04:00

Look around and you will see beauty. see smiles. hear laughter. smell sweetness. taste delights. feel love. feel patience. feel relationships. feel time.

David Droga says it better.

2006-06-20T11:26:00.000+04:00

The Creativity Question, Cannes Edition [6.14.06]

Creativity asks industry experts to weigh in on a single burning issue. This month, the special Cannes jury chairs edition: What are you looking for in a Grand Prix winner?

Droga, Creative Chairman, Droga5.
Film and Press Juries Chair.

Crabs are a funny lot. Thank goodness in death they taste so good, because in life they are a bunch of pricks. Fisherman will tell you that once a cray pot is filled with live crabs, despite the huge opening at the top of the pot, they need not worry too much about them getting away. Because if one of the braver crabs decides there is more to life than being cremated in a deep fryer and tries to make a run for it, something quite unusual happens: At least one or two of the other trapped crabs will go out of their way to prevent their brother from escaping. In fact, they will use all their power to claw him back down and away from possible freedom. It seems in the crustacean world, nobody likes an overachiever.

Now, years ago while judging one of the major U.S. awards shows, I happened upon another alarming yet predictable fact. In the show's 20-plus-year history, no single entry had ever achieved an average score from all judges higher than 7.9 out of 10. That's right, no matter how great something is to a lot of people, it just isn't up to scratch for someone else. From "1984" to "Surfer," you can be confident that some creative out there has a reason to loathe it. So what does that say about us? Are we a pack of perfectionists, or just a collection of closet cynical bastards? Imagine Nadia Comaneci's historic perfect Olympic routine through the eyes of advertising judges. "Cartwheels have been done before." "Good, but would have been better if she was blindfolded and on fire." "Gymnastics is an easy category; let's see her try that in Weightlifting." So what am I looking for in a Grand Prix? I would love to say I'm looking for a consensus, but that seems unrealistic. I'm looking for something revitalizing and surprising—an idea so magnificent that it elevates the client and our industry out of the everyday. A piece of work that is not only admired and applauded within our industry (except for a few anonymous crabs), but also acknowledged and loved by its intended target audience.

Size matters.

2006-06-13T19:29:00.000+04:00

Sometimes you need to be BIG. Stand up. Be proactive. Walk away. 'Imaginate'. Sometimes you need to be small. Realise your limits. Listen.

Cynicism

2006-06-08T14:15:00.000+04:00

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
- Oscar Wilde -

Oman colours

2006-06-03T13:28:00.000+04:00

Authenticity

2006-06-03T12:20:00.000+04:00

Keep it real.

Treat time as your friend.

2006-06-03T11:42:00.000+04:00

Be kind to it. Patient and generous with it.
Realise that it's not without faults. Sometimes it needs its own space.

Freedom from cliche's

2006-05-24T09:43:00.000+04:00

Do what you want and be happy.

2006-05-18T17:18:00.000+04:00

Move your feet to the beat of your drum.

One world, many perspectives.

2006-05-16T11:29:00.000+04:00

Be the vision you envision in the world.

Press the record button.

2006-05-13T14:05:00.003+04:00

What if everything we say remains floating around us in fragmented sound bites? Can we reconstruct it? How much of it would we want to? Reconstruct? Deconstruct? Delete?

What if all of our actions and footsteps have been witnessed by the molecules surrounding us forever embedded in space? Could we retrace our footsteps? Undo our actions? Redo our actions?

What of those feelings, thoughts, internal admissions? Will nobody be able to listen or read them if we never voice them? If we never share them, will nobody ever know? A panorama of wasted time? A gauge of reticent emotions? Or are they broadcast on some sort of human cell-ular network?

What if all the e-mails we've deleted remain suspended in virtual reality? Can we retrieve them? Edit them? Re-send them?

Somehow I think everything we think, say and do is marked down in history. This is the lasting effect we have on the history of the world. Our own sort of personal record.

The three S's theory

2006-05-13T12:03:00.000+04:00

Somewhere there is Something that appeals to Someone.

The unquestioned life.

2006-05-11T18:07:00.000+04:00

A life unquestioned, is a life unlived.