We must break free from Black Friday!!

So every year millions of Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Although the roots of Thanksgiving can be traced to religious and cultural traditions, in the United States it has taken the form of a secular celebration of family, friends, abundance of food, health and good fortune. Most people travel across the country to get together with family and friends and get a chance to create rich memories together. They enjoy a nice long weekend together and cherish the opportunity to leave their daily rut behind and just relax together with loved ones. It is a chance to stop and smell the roses and be grateful for all that is good in life.

But slowly yet surely corporate America has hijacked this beautiful and graceful holiday and converted it into a weekend of shopping frenzy and madness. The media bombards the public with promises of unearthly deals never to be seen again,  unbelievable prizes to early shoppers, the more you spend the more you save and so on.... The pressure of shopping on Black Friday is so intense that even children have started to believe that shopping on Friday is part and parcel of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Thus like zombies with no thought process of their own, majority of Americans rush through their Thanksgiving feast and head out to line up outside stores of choice. They forget that eating together as a big family and enjoying the food and real family time was the initial purpose of Thanksgiving! That purpose has been lost, now the purpose as dictated by corporate America's supercharged marketing and advertising is shopping for things you don't really need and spending money you don't really have!

It is a sad state of affairs, considering the fact that millions of Americans are still reeling from the recent economic depression, many have no jobs yet, many are in debt up to their necks yet they will go to the mall and spend and spend and spend, all the while thinking they are saving!! But saving what? If you spend $30 and save $10 on it, you still paid the $20 which you didn't really need to. It is scary to see how bad most Americans are at seeing the real truth. We do not have to buy something just so we can say we have it, we should buy what we really are in need of to sustain a healthy and safe life, everything else is luxury.

But I guess children born in the once land of plenty wouldn't know that , would they? Unfortunately no one has told them and nor have they realized it for themselves that the US is no longer the land of plenty in the real sense. It is time to educate the American public to make money wise decision and not allow big corporations  and designer labels tell them what they need to buy or own, instead it is time for them to make their own decision and take control of their financial mess.

P.S: I wrote this post after reading news about the violence seen this Black Friday and also reading an article on BBC World "The Dark Side of Black Friday". Here are links to both;

Black Friday shopping in US marred by violence
The dark side of Black Friday

Lady Gaga's Dilemma....

We all know that shocking the US television audience is the way to notoriety and fame. There was a time when pure musical talent and skill got you rich and famous but that doesn't work as well anymore. The more risqué and inappropriate according to norm the more likely it will get you the attention and boost your career needs, specially if you are lacking in real talent! 

In the 1980s Madonna understood that, she broke all rules of public decency and propriety with 'Like a virgin', she pushed limits of acceptable display of sexuality and nudity to kickstart her career, everytime she felt ignored she went one step further towards obscenity and got success and fame as a result. 

Her legacy has been kept alive by various desperate starlets over the years like Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Rihanna to name a few. They used the same tactics and it worked for most of them. All they needed was to put on a shocking sexually charged performance and their faces hit the front pages. Many more tried the same tricks, some were successful while others failed miserably, remember Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction for example.

Then in 2008 came Lady Gaga, she took Madonna's shock system to a whole new level! She decided to hide her face behind ghastly masks while showing pretty much every thing else at first. So it was sexuality presented with a touch of intrigue, leading to her fast climb to fame and fortune. She regularly put on extravagant and disturbingly weird performances on all award shows, keeping her audience hooked. She reinforced the drama by wearing the strangest and skimpiest outfits whenever and wherever possible. It was working superbly for her. She was probably planning to ride that wave for while. She seemed to know exactly how to gradually push the envelope on propriety and yet get away with it, she was in control.

But suddenly Miley Cyrus happened. Yes the same young country singer pushed to the forefront of teen music with a nice big nudge from dad Billy Ray Cyrus. Unfortunately it appears that nudge was way too much for her to handle, leading to the total disintegration of the teen darling and her transformation into the sex crazed industry rebel. Starting off at the MTV music awards 2013 gyrating with tacky old Robin Thicke on the stage and sticking out her disturbingly long tongue made her the 'twerking' sensation of the world! If anyone thought that was it, they were in for a huge surprise, yes I am talking about the video to her new single 'Wrecking ball'. After seeing her swinging buck naked on a wrecking ball, there is little left to imagination.

That is where I see Lady Gaga facing a huge dilemma, what to do next? Once all of the clothes have come off, what is left to show or shock the world?

No wonder actual artists like Annie Lennox have spoken up and called these acts pornographic. 

Here is an excerpt of her post on her Facebook page "I have to say that I'm disturbed and dismayed by the recent spate of overtly sexualised performances and videos," she wrote. "You know the ones I'm talking about. It seems obvious that certain record companies are peddling highly styled pornography with musical accompaniment …

"It's depressing to see how these performers are so eager to push this new level of low. Their assumption seems to be that misogyny – utilised and displayed through oneself – is totally fine, as long as you are the one creating it. As if it's all justified by how many millions of dollars and YouTube hits you get from behaving like pimp and prostitute at the same time. It's a glorified and monetised form of self harm."

So far Lady Gaga is dabbling in different cheap versions of her trashy and obscene performances to date, and it might be it unless of course the FCC decides to just drop the laws on Obscene, Indecent and Profane Broadcasts, which are pretty much ignored anyway. 

P.S: I was going to post pics to go along with the post, but decided against it. Just didn't feel right. 

Annie Lennox condemns 'pornographic' music videos ( Full Article)
FCC Federal Communication Commission (Laws on Obscene, Indecent and Profane Broadcasts)

Any moral compass for Facebook in this case?

The recent string of headlines, about Facebook and its wavering decision on allowing graphic beheading videos, have been somewhat perturbing. My question : Is there any moral compass influencing these flip flop decisions?

I am starting to think 'No this has nothing to do with moral values and everything to do with Facebook's business savvy and their fear of losing customers'. Here are some of those confusing headlines, now you can decide for yourself.

Facebook U-turn after charities criticise decapitation videos   (BBC World-May 1, 2013)

Facebook has said it will delete videos of people being decapitated which had been spread on its site.

"We will remove instances of these videos that are reported to us while we evaluate our policy and approach to this type of content," it said. (Full story)
Outrage erupts over Facebook's decision on graphic videos  (CNN Money-October 23, 2013)
Facebook has stirred up a storm with a controversial decision to lift a ban on violent videos, including beheadings. A temporary ban on graphic content was imposed in May following complaints about videos which depicted people being decapitated. Facebook removed the reported videos and said it was reviewing its policy on this type of graphic content. Now the company has relaxed its stance. It will allow violent content such as beheadings to be published, provided the intent is to raise awareness rather than celebrate violence. (Full Story)
Facebook removes beheading video, updates violent images standards (NBC News-Oct. 23,2013)

Facebook Inc removed a video of a woman being beheaded from its website on Tuesday and said it would use a broader set of criteria to determine when gory videos are permitted on the site. The move came a day after a public outcry over news reports that Facebook, the world's No. 1 social network with 1.15 billion members, had lifted a temporary ban on images of graphic violence. (Full Story)

Facebook defends allowing beheadings footage to continue (BBC World-November 19, 2013)

Facebook will continue to allow users to show footage of beheadings as long as it is posted in "the right context", MPs have heard. The social network site has been criticised for allowing such images to be shown, amid warnings they could cause psychological damage. Facebook's UK and Ireland policy director Simon Milner said the footage could expose human rights abuses. There would also be "more prior warnings" on content, he added. But the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) accused Facebook of lacking a sense of "responsibility". The US-based company introduced a temporary ban on decapitation clips in May, but announced last month that it believed users should be free to watch them. (Full Story)

What do you think now?