The show RED EYE which airs really late night on FOX News is actually wickedly funny and sometimes incisively so.
Try to watch the clip from their Feb 26 discussion about the Hamas Bunny.
It is the right’s version of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report, among my all-time favorites, only surpassed by the Seinfeld Series.
I often worry about how the recent technological changes will affect society. I particularly am concerned about the impacts of constant-feedback-technology (blackberry, cell, email, voicemail, sms, i.m, – you need input, input, input – like the robot in the movie Short Circuit). Will attention-span-disorder (like I have) become a regular feature of society? Will today’s kids be able to think strategically and long-term?
Some worry about how technology and the advent of the internet will decrease literacy. People will stop reading books and newspapers. But the article below provides a really interesting different angle on how tech evolution will just create different opportunities.
My friend Carmella had commented I looked like an angry assassin at the beginning of this CNN interview. Now that I saw it, I couldn’t agree more!
I hate fake smiles when you are waiting, but now I understand why politicians give those long phony grins. Anything is better than that scary seriousness! 
Thanks to Janera Soerel for an exceptionally explicit and precise interview and article tackling a lot of issues revolving OneVoice, PeaceWorks, and the philosophy underlying them.
So, your challenge is to come up with a compelling video that people will forward virally to each other, something funny, or sad, or powerful which will provoke people to share with others. Your problem is that the product you want to promote is a door knob lock! How do you make that funny?
Before you click on the answer, see if you can come up with anything so you will see how ingenious the following is:
http://www.hallpass.com/media/surelock.html
A Message in A Bottle from An Iraqi Kid: Here is a remarkable example of hope, grassroots activism, and simple excellence in marketing thought!
Worth visiting the home page of this Dutch Department store… …give it a few seconds to see what happens… VERY CREATIVE:
A revolution inside the human brain is taking place far beyond our capacity to understand.
What we call "A.D.D." or attention-deficit-disorder will become the norm rather than the exception, if it hasn’t already.
Our brains used to de-construct and decompress during leisurely walks between work and home, but if you see people walking nowadays, odds are they are speaking on a cell phone. No time to waste: we crave more input.
Email processing makes us "efficient" (though it can also invade our management time) but changes the very way we organize ourselves and communicate. The constant feedback mechanism turns us into creatures desiring a flow of data and messages.
Instant-messaging, social network platforms, the way we seek news over the internet, and email reminders, are all transforming the way we think, process, relate to other human beings, and relate to our brains.
The impact of this constant-feedback/short-span model of communications is already felt in entertainment platforms, where Youtube’s short-clips are becoming more the rage than long-format movies.
When we design a video presentation for OneVoice or PeaceWorks, of course we forget about the 1 hour or 20 minute pieces, but now even the 5 minute piece which was acceptable a few years ago is a total eternity. You have 1 minute max to convey your message, no matter how deep or complex. After that you’ve lost your audience.
I will not be surprised if the next generation of human beings is radically different in the way people relate to one another. We have no idea what we are going to become.
And I have a fleeting feeling (as feelings and thoughts increasingly are) that it is not going to be pretty.
For those that can read Spanish, below is an excerpt from an article by Leo Zuckerman, an excellent Mexican columnist (who happens to be married to the smart cousin in the family .
For those that can’t read Spanish, just a quick synopsis: The Iranian regime is not content with suppressing their own people, or blowing up embassies and community centers in Argentina or trying to procure nuclear weapons, or trying to be a spoiler to efforts by the Palestinian and Israeli Heads of State to achieve a peace agreement.
Now they are also trying to impose their censure on artists exhibiting art in Mexican Museums. They began bullying an artist and museum threatening to issue fatwas against them if they do not bring down a display. The art at stake by a Moroccan artist is a homage to French painter Gustave Coubert and is based on photographs of human vaginas covered by a contour that resembles a temple. The Iranian Ambassador was incensed at this and began threatening everyone he could.
At issue is not whether you or I like the art at sake – I have never seen it. But whether a retrograde regime that imposes censure on its own people, persecuting homosexuals and lashing out against women who don’t wear a hijab or banning all sorts of open behavior or jailing people that disagree with their views – should have the gull to seek to impose their views on the citizens of Mexico also!!!
I think there is great validity to the view that artists should exercise their judgment and be sensitive to certain core tenets of religions. The Danish cartoons that infringed on the Islamic ban of portraying the Great Prophet Muhammad (let alone doing so in an offensive fashion) in my opinion were exceedingly insensitive to a noble religion and it is very regrettable that such bad judgment was displayed by those who organized a "contest" about this.
But the answer is not to use or threaten violence, and it is also certainly not to censure all forms of expression that may offend precisely because artists some times need to be able to express themselves against the injustice or inhumanity of a status quo condition, government or religion and, while it is very sad when people feel they need to offend others, it is far more harmful to prevent all forms of expression that offend those in power.
Now to add insult to injury the Iranian Ambassador seeks to impose his censure in a peace-loving and modest country thousands of miles away from his.
Excélsior / Juegos de Poder
Aquí no, señor embajador
Leo Zuckermann / Martes 27 de noviembre del 2007
Gracias a una oportuna y completa nota de Juan Pablo Proal en Proceso me enteré de que el embajador de Irán en México está exigiendo el retiro de una exposición artística en Puebla. La historia es la siguiente. En la capital poblana se está exhibiendo la obra El origen del mundo del artista marroquí Fouad Bellamine. En ella hay una serie de fotografías de vaginas humanas cubiertas por un contorno que asemeja una mezquita. De acuerdo al autor, la obra es un homenaje al pintor francés Gustave Coubert que en el siglo XIX mostró una vagina desnuda que fue censurada: “Con ese antecedente, el marroquí intentó también hacer una deferencia estética a la vagina por ser una fuente de vida, explica la curadora”.
El embajador Mohammad Hassan Chadiri Abyahen fue invitado a la inauguración del Festival Internacional de Puebla y visitó la exhibición. En cuanto la vio, se indignó, consideró las obras como “superpornográficas” y exigió que fueran inmediatamente retiradas. El artista le explicó que el símbolo de la mezquita al frente de las vaginas “era meramente espiritual y podría interpretarse como una Iglesia católica o judía”. Pero el iraní se enojó más y le reclamó que no tenía derecho a ofender a ninguna religión. Al parecer, la Secretaría de Cultura de Puebla, con la anuencia del artista, decidió desmontar la exhibición de inmediato, lo cual, por fortuna, no ocurrió. Fue entonces que el embajador iraní mandó una carta que vale la pena citar:
“Mientras el mundo musulmán está lleno de auténticos artistas representantes de su propia cultura, invitar a un maniático, vulgar e ignorante y a pesar de todo llamarlo artista a presentar la cultura y arte del mundo musulmán, resulta muy extraño.
“Usar este tipo de fotografías pornográficas, no tiene nada que ver con la cultura y el arte del mundo islámico, fotografías que pueden representar una parte vulgar de algunos ambientes, muy corruptos de algún país del mundo occidental. Una exposición que no es posible exhibirlo en ningún país islámico.
“El autor debería explicar al Mundo del Islam la razón de su acto ofensivo. Es natural que el mundo islámico no existe tolerancia, acerca de insultar a los asuntos Sagrados, por esto es mejor que no se repita esta situación, y es lógico y humano respetar el credo religioso de otros”.
La misiva, además de mal redactada, amenazó con “boletinar” a Bellamine como “enemigo del Islam”. Y ya se sabe qué significa esto como lo ha atestiguado el escritor Salman Rushdie quien ha tenido que vivir prácticamente en la clandestinidad.
La embajada iraní sigue presionando para que se retire la exhibición. Dice estar dispuesta a una crisis diplomática con México. Sería un grave error que el gobierno de Mario Marín e incluso el federal de Felipe Calderón accedieran a las demandas de Chadiri Abyahen. México es un país occidental donde constitucionalmente está protegido el derecho a la libertad de expresión. Si a los religiosos les disgusta este tipo de exhibiciones, pues que no vayan a verla.
Eso es muy diferente a ordenar la censura como efectivamente sucede en los países islámicos. En este sentido, el embajador iraní es un buen representante de su nación donde se piensa que el Estado, dominado por los ayatolás, debe ser intolerante con los “asuntos Sagrados” y decidir qué sí y qué no puede ver la gente. Pero aquí, señor embajador, las cosas son diferentes. En México los artistas tienen el derecho de exhibir sus obras, aunque sean una basura, lo cual lo decide cada quien de acuerdo a su criterio personal.
Irán es un país fundamentalista que, como este caso demuestra, pretende exportar sus creencias. Qué peligroso que estos religiosos intolerantes estén a punto de tener armas nucleares.
I love the title of this award that was kindly bestowed by Fast Company and the Monitor Group on the PeaceWorks Foundation among "43 Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the World." Their description:
The amazing organizations that received the Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards have found a better way to do good: They’re using the disciplines of the corporate world to tackle daunting social problems. In our fourth exclusive ranking, we used a similarly hard-nosed approach to find the 43 best social entrepreneurs.
What appeals to me about this award in particular is the increasing attention being paid to groups committed to use market tools and techniques to try to make this a better world. I am a committed capitalist, but not a day goes by that I don’t scratch my head troubled by the problems of rampant consumerism, environmental degradation, corporate abuse, and many other externalities that can only be managed by more conscientious consumers and business leaders.
Along the lines of the term "enlightened self-interest" which we coined to highlight the imperative of citizens thinking long-term and holistically when they think about their political interests, a "Social Capitalist" should not be just the 43 awardees, but all who recognize the incredible but blunt power of capitalism, and find ways to channel that power to ensure we are also building a better world along the way.
Here is the profile on the PeaceWorks Foundation by Fast Company/The Monitor Group.
We are very appreciative to them for their recognition and support – which really help energize us.