Untukmu Para Pengunjung

I am often amazed by people who don't just think of doing good things, but who actually do them. My friend Gaia - who I went to high school with and got reunited with on facebook - sent us movies and Halloween candy. I must admit, I wasn't expecting Halloween candy this year! She sent candy corn, which is kind of funny, because John and I always joke that Zimbabweans like maize in any form. And maize is similar to corn - so now people can all try a whole new form of maize!

I know a lot of Christians get uptight about Halloween, but we're a very Christian family, and we always celebrated in full force. Not in the "worship evil spirits and dress up as ghosts and ghouls and have an excuse for vandalism" way. But we got dressed up and had lots of free candy, and always went to see old people in our costumes so that we could sing for them. And we always carved jack-o-lanterns with my dad and then baked the pumpkin seeds. My dad was really good at making creative faces on the pumpkins. And the 4 of us would always come home and start trading. Uh oh - I'm getting sentimental, and I just might cry.... happy halloween!

P.S. Happy engagement to our good friend Kim and her soon-to-be-husband David!

Happy 1 year and 11 days birthday Adspace-Pioneer.

I thought now was the right time to tell the story of how I started Adspace-Pioneers.

Last year I finished my degree and joined the other 5,312 recently graduated students applying for the 17 jobs in advertising.

I did all the things they suggested for getting a job; I got an internship/part time job at an agency, went to every university networking night and begged my parents to ring their long lost friends in the industry to hook me up with a job.

All I ended up with was a stack of business cards.

I dreaded the next step the awkward phone conversation; with the pleasantries aside I would get to business.

‘So any jobs on the radar “insert business card name here”?’

…….

‘No, Julian I will keep an eye out for you, Ah that’s a client on the other line. I will give you a call if I hear of anything.’

I kept thinking there must be an easier way than this. Then one day it just clicked for me. I was asking for so much and giving them nothing back.

I could understand it though, I was asking them for a massive break and then giving them nothing back.

Around this I was working at Sputnik Agency, I was working one day a week preparing a trend report which went out to all the employees. 4 or 5 new trends that people were talking about.

Then it just clicked.

I should be emailing this out to my contacts. This was valuable information; people are time poor and want condensed information. I sent an email out to my contacts telling them I have set up a trend report blog that I will email you every week with updates.

It just made so much sense. I was able to stay top of mind with all my contacts, they were receiving valuable information. I had something to talk to them about. No longer did I feel bad about asking for a job, I just put a note on the end of my email saying I am still looking for a job.

A year on the blog has become more of a tool to make sure that I am keeping up to date with what is happening in the digital environment.

It is great to see other students following this path as well, notably Zac Martin a Monash Student who has started the blog Making Marketing.

And another birthday card

I think I have spent too much time online this year.

3 years of internet memes in a four minute video.

Hilarious video of Eva Pascoe showing how entertaining the Internet was back in 95.

On Sunday we celebrated 1 and a half years in Zimbabwe. So now we're over halfway through our 3 year term here. I'm tempted to say, "my the time has flown" but if truth be told, it's felt like we've been here 10 years already!! Of course (geek that I am) I had to evaluate myself and the past year and a half. There are things I could have done better at (i.e. learning Shona or visiting people more) but there are things we've done well too. We've made some good friends, and done some good work, and shared life with people.

For example... Saturday I went to my friend Alice's baptism at the Seventh Day Adventist Church. It was eventful. I was sitting with Gogo and Melissa. Gogo is quite old and doesn't know how to whisper, so she was making all her comments to me in quite a loud voice (like when someone was testifying and she said "I have no idea what she's going on about, but she looks sweet!") Melissa has down syndrome. She would say random things to me (like "I don't want to go to Afghanistan") and at one point she was enjoying the singing and so got up and started dancing. We were in the front row, and this caused quite a stir. I refused to ask her to sit down even though everyone behind us was sneering! Sunday night we took some friends out to celebrate birthdays - and it was just fun to eat together and share jokes. That's what we came here for - to share life.

I am currently spending ten days in the UK en route to Las Vegas for blogworldexpo. I took my kids shopping in the various superstores and saw the following in TK Maxx. You could not make it up, what happened to running around?

An interesting video debate about the impact that technology plays on education.

As my dad said 'You could not pay for this sort of PR'

Great Article by Katie Cincotta

Inside word is that Tequila are behind this campaign and if their Tenacious D online campaign is anything to go by this should be a good campaign. Will be interesting to see what they do with this one. Cannot say it has grabbed me with the same anticipation of the Man Cans but I will look on with interest.

My guess is for Ebay or Playstation. They seem like the two brands that fit best from their current clients.

Do you often start explaining something that you are really passionate about and get blank looks from the people you are with?

You are probably suffering from the Curse of Knowledge.

I am reading a really cool book at the moment ‘Made to Stick’. It suggests why some ideas stick and other fail. Check out the videos for more information.

One of the interesting concepts that is brought up is the idea of ‘The Curse of Knowledge’. It suggests that your knowledge on a subject is a curse because you struggle to remember what it is like to not remember something. This happens with me with Social Media/Web2.0. My knowledge about the subject is a curse because I cannot remember what it is like to not know anything and assume everyone has the same knowledge as me.

Therefore I have found this good resource for myself. it is a Whitepaper on Advertising 2.0. and explains Social Media Advertising in a really simple way.

Good Bloggers Summary of main points of the book


Speech with Chip Heath from ForaTV


Interview on the Today Show with Chip and Dan Heath

Mike Smith from the soon to be World Renowned Smith Communications takes us on a tour of Naked Communications, Melbourne Office.



As Faris would say; Talent Imitates Genius Steals

And we're back! It's so marvelous to have electricity/internet/phones at work again. John's bagels are so yummy too. I've got an amazing husband. Oh, from last time - Amai Shumba: it means Mrs. Lion (John's totem is lion, and a lot of people here men by their totems).

We continue to learn new and interesting things in Zimbabwe. I was reading an article in the paper last night that caught my attention. It was entitled, "Employees adopt survival plans" and it was about how employees are using their businesses/government offices/places of employment to run their own business. For example, Moses works in a garage. Customers come in to the well-known establishment, and he tells them the prices for service but then in a hushed tone says, "but if you come to my place after work, I'll do the service for cheaper." Or Thomas works in a bar and stocks half of the fridge with his own beer to sell and make personal profits on top of his salary. Blessing works in a government office which registers companies. But he ends up referring most of them to his friends/partners who operate a company registration firm and give him a share of the profits for recruiting so many customers. People use company vehicles/phones/time for personal business transactions. Would you call this unorthodox? Corrupt? Survival?

I remember when we moved here, everyone asked me what my business was going to be. I explained that I had a full time job with The Salvation Army, and they were like, "no, outside of your work." EVERYONE here has a business - whether they're unemployed or working full-time as church pastors or government ministers or business people. It just gets a bit tricky when there's corruption involved, or when this business takes up all of the time you are supposed to spend on your "real" job. But I guess it's survival. By the way - want to buy some onions? :)

I am up in Naked's Sydney office for the week. They have a really cool office space. Here is a video tour of the office.

You are looking at (ok, well reading the words of) the newest Secretary to the Executive council of the Zimbabwe AIDS Network - Harare chapter. Yep, I won the election today. The funny part is that no one even knows my real name - I ran as Amai Shumba, because I knew no one would be able to understand spell either my first or last (real) name. It will be a lot of work - but great exposure.

In other news, we're still without power at work - it's been over a week now. It makes you realize how dependent you are on computers! The Pritchetts are visiting Zimbabwe, and it's wonderful to have faces from home - they brought us chocolate and Pringles too - God is good. And our friends the Wards are heading to Pakistan to lead The Salvation Army there - which is huge! There's a short little update. 2 months til we land in Toronto for Christmas....

I have watched this clip many times now. I still do not see how it was disallowed? I know Australian TV referee Stuart Dickinson has now totally defended his controversial decision to disallow a try by England winger Mark Cueto in the Rugby World Cup final.

Many England and some neutral rugby fans claim the decision probably cost the defending champions the chance to beat South Africa. Jake White even privately told Lawrence Dallaglio (mentioned on the BBC's Inside Sport last night) that he thought it was a try.

But Dickinson told The Guardian newspaper in London that he was certain he made the right decision.

"I'm 100 percent happy with the decision,"

"We looked at some footage of it late last night and factually the decision is indisputable."

"Of course the players are disappointed."

"If they weren't, you would be disappointed in them as elite athletes."

I have got the clip below, you tell me..

I live in a small city called La Rochelle in South West France.

For the past year and a bit, I have walked past a shop that sells possibly the best cakes (to look at) on Earth! I have always promised to treat myself one day to the one that looked like a small plate of spaghetti. That day was yesterday.

Guess what flavour it was..I had no idea before I bought it. It was delicious!

The shop is called D'Jolly and it is near Place Verdun in the centre. If you ever visit La Rochelle, you must have a cup of tea or coffee and a cake there!

Consumer Generated Content - Axis of Awesome : Howard vs. Rudd, by mWboo6

Online is my future; I have invested a year studying the phenomena with my thesis on Online Social Networks and am going into a full time job working in it.

Therefore I have decided that my vote in the up coming Australian election will be based solely on the party that is best able to communicate with the Australian public online.

However I will not be passing judgement, I am leaving the choice up to the readers of Adspace-Pioneers. I will ask readers to vote for which party they believe joins the conversation, has the best grass roots online community and gives the best back to basic information needed to make the decision. As I am going away the decision will be made on November 11th.

The following are definitions of the three items that I want people to vote on and the information that they need to pass judgement on;

Joining the Conversation – Which party is best at joining the conversation, social media is giving politicians the chance to have a conversation with

Labor
Kevin Rudd’s Facebook Page

Australian Labor Youtube Channel

Kevin Rudd’s Myspace Page

Liberal
John Howards Facebook Page


John Howard 2007 Youtube Channel



Greens

Bob Brown’s Facebook Page

Senator Bob Brown Youtube Channel


Democrats
Lyn Allison Facebook Page

Lyn Allison Youtube Channel


Grass Roots Online Community – What party has got the best online community working for them, which groups has the most active facebook groups, bloggers, causing the most noise.

Labor

Facebook Group – I want to be Kevin Rudd’s friend too


Prominent Blogger
Polemica
Connect Through Values
Politc0
John Quiggin
Anonymous Lefty
Newz4world
Bolt Watch
Possum Comitatus
Fair news

Liberal
Facebook Group – Kevin Rudd Will Ruin Australia

Prominent Blogger
Auspundits
Andrew Norton
Oz Conservative
Catallaxy Files
Tim Blair

Greens
Facebook Group – Bob Brown for PM

Prominent Blogger
Greens Blog


Back to basic Information – What party gives the individual the information that they need, to make an informed decisions.

Labor
Home Site-
Kevin 07

Liberal
Home Site

Greens
Home Site


Democrats
Home Site

Please put your votes for the four categories in the comments below

Sorry I've been out of commission for a while. We haven't had electricity/phones/internet at work this week. We're on the same power grid as the main public hospital, so we think they're rewiring cables to make the hospital a separate grid (so that they can keep their power on while giving the rest of us in the city centre our fair share of load-shedding). Fun! Although, obviously I'm thankful that they're interested in keeping power on at the hospital. I'm writing you from an internet cafe in town - and it only took 20 minutes for me to load up this page. I shouldn't really complain. It's just that I thought we were going to get a raise this week, and we didn't (so with inflation, now John and I each make 50 cents each a month!) It's so hard to know what to do with our monthly salary - buy 4 tomatoes or combine our salaries and get an ice cream cone (it's hot in Harare these days!) I'm just kidding of course. As soon as we get paid, we give the money away. I wonder if there's a way to store electricity in our suitcases when we go home at Christmas....

Last Sunday I gave a presentation on sexual trafficking at one of the churches here, and as a thank you, they gave me $2million (what can I say? I'm a good speaker!!) Anyway, John and I agreed that we should give this money straight away, so when we got home, we brought it to one of our neighbours. As it turns out, she had been very sick, and was heading out the door to buy medication. She was dressed and ready to go, but did not have any money, so she had been praying that God would send her some. And He did - $2 million; right on time. Saturday she was marveling about how God always takes care of her. Whenever there isn't a morsel of food in the house, she prays, and then someone comes by with a little something. Every time. She and her husband had been arguing over giving money in the offering plate at church. He was saying that they have so little, and she was saying that if they gave it, God would continue to bless them. When I came by yesterday with a small gift, she said to her husband, "see? now you have to admit that I was right!" I'm not a fan of the prosperity gospel - the whole idea that you can become rich if you give to God; televangelists asking people to put money in the offering plate, or send money via a cheque so that God can bless them threefold. It just doesn't ring true to me because I know too many people who are poor economically but very faithful to God. But my friend made me think twice. There's definitely something very special about trusting in God and listening to God and sharing. There's something wonderful about giving to God - not because you expect to become rich, but because you expect that He will use your family members and friends and neighbours to take care of you and bless you. My friend's faith humbles me and astounds me. She (and so many of our friends here) are literally relying on God for their daily bread - and trusting in a good God who will continue to take care of them. It's a simple, beautiful faith that I admire and desire. Our friend got tears in her eyes when she said to me, "I thank God every day for you and John. All of the time I was crying because all of my family is gone, and then God sent you - in an airplane - all the way from Canada. I know that you are a gift to me, because God always answers my prayers." What an honour - to be part of a miracle; part of the answer to someone's prayers. I see miracles every single day. I love God.

I really like this approach by RSVP.com.au, I think Love Communication (the agency behind it) has done a really neat job at communicating a cleaner image for the brand. As picked up by information aesthetics blog it is very similar to the opening of Stranger than Fiction.



However for me Online Dating Sites are on the way out with people now choosing Facebook over dating sites. There is more security, going on a date with a friend’s friend rather than a complete random.

As my research has shown people are more likely to portray an accurate image of the person they are offline in Facebook as there offline friend’s are viewing the material they put up and will ‘call them out’ if they start expanding the truth.

However on RSVP, I could of just done AIDS work in Africa for the last 5 years and now am going back to University to study Medicine/Law, even know I don’t have to because I am inheriting my parents multi billion dollar business. Enough rambling here is the male version for RSVP




And another clever ad by Love for Ricoh Printers.

From humble beginning being printed and handed out at Melbourne Music Stores, this e-Mag has gone onto have over 200,000 downloads of the latest edition. Hands down the best read of the year. Check it out here.

Yesterday I finished up the two day workshop on mainstreaming gender into the church. There was this one really interesting discussion/debate on whether pastors need to review the wedding vows - particularly the part about "in sickness and in health." It would seem that in Zimbabwe this verse is interpreted as "a woman must stick by her husband and obey all of his wishes including unprotected sex and reproducing children even if he is ill; and even if he is HIV+ and exercising these rights means that the wife will become infected. This isn't exactly the framework I was thinking of on my wedding day... Personally I feel that these conjugal rights are related to lobola. If you buy your wife, you probably feel like you have the right to do whatever you want to her/with her whenever you want, right?

There was also an interesting discussion on paternity leave. One guy spoke up and said, "but if you have 6 wives, you'll be on paternity leave all year, and that will severely affect production and the economy of the nation." True... I guess if you're in that situation, you just really have to get your timing right!

We ate bagels this morning. I baked them two nights ago, and I was surprised at how easy it was to make them. The key is to boil the dough before baking, which gives the bagels a smooth and chewy crust. Yumm… Does anyone know how to make Montreal smoked meat?

My next culinary experiment will be replicating the Big Mac. It’s good to have goals.

We are running out of books!!! I just downloaded four new ones to read on my Palm Pilot, which will hopefully get me through the next few weeks. I downloaded Alice Munro’s The View from Castle Rock, Ernest Hemmingway’s Short Stories and Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. I’m really looking forward to reading Murakami’s stuff. I read one of his short stories from Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman last night and thoroughly enjoyed his writing style.

We’re coming home to Canada at Christmas for a short vacation, so we’ll be stocking up on some more books. I will definitely be picking up MG Vassanji’s The Assassin’s Song and Elizabeth Hay’s Late Nights on Air. Do you have any book recommendations?

Two of my recent favourites: Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero and Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Rochelle’s brother Joel just sent us some movies, so that should slow down my reading rampage. We watched a few episodes of Lost last night (thanks, Joel!) on my laptop while we ate a very Canadian supper: Fried egg on a bagel, corn on the cob, watermelon and strawberries. All of the food was grown locally, except for the flour used to make the bagels. We haven’t spent much time on our garden lately, but we’ve got onions, peppers and carrots growing right now and we’ll plant a new batch of sweet corn this weekend. We also have plenty of lavender growing in the front of our house, so I occasionally cut a few branches and throw them into our morning bath.

I just spent the morning at the Holiday Inn for a meeting with UNICEF. They were gathering churches from the National Faith Based Council to come and talk about gender mainstreaming within the church. Gender is such a fascinating topic anywhere, but in Zimbabwe it always makes an interesting discussion. I was sitting next to a woman who has founded and pastors her own church. The first Sunday she led services her husband was ashamed and left home never to return. There is such a difference between what people say in meetings like this one, and what they say over the lunch table afterwards - or in the combi ride home. (Like, "gender equality is a foreign, white thing. It will never happen in our African culture" or in The Salvation Army they'll say, "oh of course my wife could be a divisional commander, as long as she knows she's the slave at home!") Right. I still can't get over the whole "girls are only valuable because they bring in money at their wedding" thing. At the wedding on Saturday they raised $182 million (we know this, because each relative and friend goes to the front and announces their gift as they present it and then totals are announced). I can't imagine being bought by my husband (although here, everyone can't believe that John got me for free!)

I am SO thankful for a husband who both loves and respects me. Actually, last night I was visiting some friends, and one of them asked me if I had given a magic potion (made mostly of boiled lizards) to John. You see, he was home making bagels (who does that? what a clever guy - they're delicious!) while I was out visiting. Because John likes to be in the kitchen, people assume that I have put a curse on him. And they're serious! I know one thing for sure - I would not have lasted 1 week as a Zimbabwean wife (because of my total lack of skill in almost every home-making activity!) People here generally preach that if you don't go by prescribed, traditional gender roles, you will be unhappy in your marriage, and it will never last. But it works for us! We don't fit the mold at all, but we're happy, and we both feel like we have an amazing marriage.

P.S. We had a buffet lunch after the meeting. I don't know where hotels are getting their food, but it was a feast! At the end, one of the waitresses came up to me and asked if I'd like to settle the bill for everyone. I realized I was the only white person in the crowded restaurant. I guess assumptions are hard to beat in any category!

This one was too strong to be put on to fuelmyblog but I couldn't let it pass, it is hilarious.

(We are also giving away 100 T-shirts and $500 in cash to bloggers in October, not yet a member of my community fuelmyblog? Sign up!)

Why would you highlight in an ad the one reason why people don’t adopt your product?

3G video calling technology has been around for years and there is one main reason why people have not adopted the technology, they do not want other people prying into their private lives 24/7. If I am at the pub with my mates and my girlfriend rings me to see why I am not at home with her for our anniversary, I sure as hell do not want to take the call on video. I am stunned at this advertisement, good luck getting the Christian adoption rate up as well!

There are jacaranda trees all around Harare. They are beautiful trees which make lovely archways and a beautiful purple carpet on the ground. They are similar to lilacs (my mom's favourite), and remind me of Anne of Green Gables. Yesterday I was in the back of a pick-up truck and I asked if the jacarandas were native to Zimbabwe. Then I got an earful! As it turns out, the jacarandas were brought here by the varungu (whites) who thought they looked beautiful, and so they planted them everywhere. They even used to have festivals where they would all dress up in the same colours to match the trees and get their photos taken. But most "real" Zimbabweans are allergic to jacarandas. It makes them cough and sneeze (the people talking coughed here to emphasize the point). The people who were telling me about the jacarandas were angry. So I decided that I should apologize - on behalf of "my" people - the horribly racist whites who obviously wanted to poison the Blacks with their lust for beauty (wait - this is sounding like "The Herald"!) So, I said I was sorry, and this satisfied the people in the back of the truck. I didn't have much to do with this tree decision, but I'm guessing that no one else is lining up to come here about apologize about the jacarandas. (By the way, did you see that descendants of Lothar van Trotha apologized to the Herero people for the 1904 massacres and forced starvation over land ownership in Namibia? Better late than never, I guess...)

This short film is from a few years ago but is an absolute classic. Written by the same guy who writes the satirical website Aktifmag

Pure Blonde now have an ad that is up there with the rest of the Foster's alcohol contingent (Barry Dawson and Cougar, Carlton Draught and Big Ad, VB and Thirst).

I really like this ad, I think it takes a little too long to set the scene but is gold when the truckie gets involved.


Top 5 Fosters Alcohol Group Ads


1. All Around the World - Fosters


2.Big Ad Carlton Draught


3. The Tash - VB


4. Flashbeer- Carlton Draught


5. Barry Dawson - Cougar


And one from the Vault
1982 VB Ad

Happy Thanksgiving! We are missing family, friends and turkey in Canada, but we still have hundreds of reasons to give thanks. I am thankful for John, family and friends, running water, flour from Zambia (and a husband who makes good bread), our health, people who support us in prayer, our washing machine (and enough electricity on the weekend to do 2 loads of wash!), e-mail, our garden, great neighbours, people who don't judge me, chocolate, so, so, so many good people that I know and love.... I won't get into the whole list, but you get the idea.

We had a good weekend. We spent the day Saturday at a wedding. It amazes me that in these difficult circumstances, people still pull off events with 8 bridesmaids in gorgeous dresses and feeding hundreds of people, etc. etc. It was a beautiful event, and the photo shoot was at a wonderful sculpture garden (which, of course, the Shonas are famous for). In the evening we went to a concert to commemorate World Palliative Care and Hospice Day. It was put on by Island Hospice, where I do my volunteer work, and it was a delightful concert - with everything from the National Ballet to African Voice to a jazz band to classical piano. It brought back a lot of memories - of high school days in the stage band, to piano recitals, to seeing the Canadian national ballet at the Harbourfront to singing at National, etc. It made me thankful for my past, present and future.

Then yesterday I had my own little private Thanksgiving service - listing so many things I'm thankful for - and just really being grateful to God. It's so easy for me to complain, and yet when I looked at this list of all I'm thankful for I wondered how I can ever not give thanks! In the absence of turkey, we celebrated at a French restaurant (I had prawns and John had lamb curry - yum!) with our friends David and Brenda. At home I chatted with Gogo for a bit (she had this long, intricate, fascinating story about being bit by a monkey!) and then watched "Moulin Rouge." It was an odd Thanksgiving weekend, but a nice one. Thank you, God!

Here is the first lesson from Symbols of Australia

As much as marketers like to think about Consumer Involvement as this new marketing technique it is not. The story of the Australian icon Vegemite is testament that this technique has been around for years.

‘In 1910, the popular English spread Marmite was registered in Australia. Made from beef extract, the product is still in exsistence today. In early 1923, Fred Walker, an enterprising general merchant produced a vegetable extract. To position it in direct compeititon with Marmite, he called it Parwill: ‘Marmite-mother might, Parwill- father will.

The brand didn’t take on and Walker assumed it may have had something to do with the name. Late 1923 he conducted a competition to rename it. The result was Vegemite, which Walker duly registered.’

A recent example that comes to mind of the food industry using this consumer involvement in the product naming is the Name It Burger competition from McDonalds. Link here.

In the picture above is a Vegemite ad from 1923 and a bottle from 1950 and one from the 1980’s.

As well as looking to the future of advertising I think it is also good to look back. Today I was at the Camberwell Market, it is local trash and treasure market in Melbourne which is well worth the journey on a Sunday Morning. I found this great book ‘Symbols of Australia’ by Mimmo Cozzolino. It is a story about the history of Australia studying brands and trademarks. I was surprised to see how many of the innovative campaigns of today are replica of older advertising campaigns.


However I must give credit to Faris who showed me some examples of how he recreated the stories from The Shocking History of Advertising.

Over the next month I will be taking extracts from the book and showing how they are still relevant today.

Lesson 1: History of Vegemite, Consumer Involvement Old Hat

Mscape is taking computer games outdoors. People are now playing computer games on mobile devices, with the outdoor environment acting as the playing field. Mscape is an extension of the popular Alternative Reality Games. There is so much opportunity here for brands and companies; they could set up offline treasure hunts or whole games for people to play in.


Here is a making of a Mscape game - Timehole

The final ad in the amazing trilogy for Sony Bravia. First balls, then paint and now bunnies. The Ad is made up of 100,000 still images. The ad aired in the UK last night. Once again the advertisement is as much about the final product as it is the making of the ads which seems to be of interest to the audience.

Balls: Did they really roll that many balls down a street?
Paint: Did they really blow up a building with paint?
Play Doh: Did they really make those bunnies?



Here is the official website Sony Bravia

and the past two commercials

Paint



Balls

This morning I was asked to pray about the teachers' strike, which is a sore point for parents because many students are supposed to write exams starting next week (i.e. grade 7 exams, which determine where kids will be able to attend high school). Teachers are requesting $16.7 million/month, up from their current $3million (note: I met a teacher last week who was still getting $30,000/month, so I guess things are even more desperate the rural areas!) This is quite a rise, but keep in mind that we have the highest inflation in the world and that in real money, this pay hike would still amount to less than $35us.

Paying teachers is quite an important justice issue - at least paying them enough to feed their own children and send them to school. Zimbabweans are always bragging to us about how ours is the best education system on the continent. I would guess that in order to keep it that way, we would need teachers who need to be slightly motivated to keep on teaching. Before the strike, some teachers were refusing to teach during regular school hours, and then charging their own rates for after-school tutorials. Everyone in Zimbabwe has some form of business. In fact, it was one of the first questions people asked us when we moved here - "what's your business going to be?" They meant outside of our full-time jobs, of course.

About those jobs... my new job is challenging but great, and I'm trying to learn as much as possible in a short space of time. We're still going strong at $350,000 each, but we get housing/electricity/water/phones, etc. paid for. Well, when there IS electricity, and hmmm, when was the last time our phone worked?

Click here to see site

For the promotion of David McCandless’ internet spoof book The internet Now In Handy Bookform another Facebook e-cultural hijacking.

Following the popular Dove Evolution comes the new campaign ‘Dove Onslaught’

The Salvation Army is working on a national-level partnership with World Vision, and so last week I spent 3 days with World Vision staff in Hurungwe, seeing how they work. Of course, I have always been impressed with the multitude of services World Services offers and the way they are helping so many thousands (millions?) of people around the world. I'm also impressed by the way World Vision is trying to integrate disability into a more general HIV/AIDS framework. Last week we visited a Disabled Persons Organization deep in the rural areas. When we arrived, the whole crowd was huddled into a building they had constructed themselves. Their strengths were obvious from the beginning. For example, 40 out of 56 disabled children in the community are not attending school, and so the group is advocating for them. The district told them that the kids were not allowed to be integrated, and that they needed special classrooms, but that there are no spare buildings. So the group started making bricks, and they're still fighting. I was touched by the way members of the group helped each other - a woman using her only hand to guide a blind man using a stick, a man with a heart problem inventing sign language to communicate with a girl who cannot hear.

In this country there is a lot of discrimination against people with disabilities. Children are often hidden away in their homes, and not allowed to play with other kids. Pregnant women fear seeing disabled children, because some believe that the sighting will cause their babies to be born with a disability. An officer couple we know had a disabled child, and suddenly their church attendance dropped, and rumours of curses spread throughout the community. How painful!

I must say, Zimbabweans continue to impress me. Sometimes I get into a "woe is me - I live in economic hardship" mindset. And then I meet people who are not only living this hardship, but living it in the rural areas with drought, HIV+ and with a disability - and yet living with grace, hope, strength and a desire to help others. It's humbling.

After arriving back from AUG on Friday, I was surprised when I got a google alert telling me I was mentioned in the Advertising Young Minds Rank. Adstructure came up with idea which is a ranking of the top 27 blogs of people under 27. I was surprised to make the list at number 25.

Interesting to see a lot of other Naked employee hovering around the top with Noah Brier (1) and Heron Preston (4) both working at Naked New York. As far as I can tell I am the only Australian representative, so it is quite an honour to be in this list.

For all the details go to the Adstructure blog.

You know it's going to be a good day when you go for your morning run and see a mother giraffe walking with her brand new baby in the Woodlands near your house! By the way, we heard about a random giraffe that ended up in Chitungwiza (a high density suburb). Supposedly there was great debate in the community - do we set it free or kill it for meat?

Speaking of meat... the other day I arrived at a friend's house, and he served me meat on rice with some vegetables. I was surprised to see meat, and he said that a friend had given it to him that day, and so he decided to give it to me. He also said that this was the last food in the whole house. I awkwardly ate it as the rest of the family members looked on. I knew it would be rude to leave anything on my plate, but I couldn't help it - I left the best pieces of meat because I knew kids in the kitchen would eat it later. When I had finished, the family asked me to lead a prayer, asking God that somehow there would be food on the table the next day. Sometimes I feel like I'm a character in a Bible story, and it's humbling... (by the way, the prayer worked - someone gave us a chicken the next day, so we slaughtered it and killed it. It was really hard for me to get the meat off the bones because of its age. I learned the true meaning of "tough old bird!")

(click on the image for enlarged size)

For those reading this outside the UK, Gary Linekar is an ex-soccer star, now hosts a soccer program on the BBC called Match of the day. He also promotes crisps (chips). Obviously not him and the French advert underneath speaks for itself!