Social Slave

This is my favorite part about the New Year – a look at New Year’s Eve celebrations and fireworks from all over the world.

No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square, it would incite protests that would topple dictators and start a global wave of dissent. In 2011, protesters didn’t just voice their complaints; they changed the world.

Time magazine chose The Protester as its person of the year as a tribute to the demonstrations that defined 2011 starting with the Arab Spring, moving on to Spain and Greece, Russia and Congo to Occupy Wall Street.

A lot of people expected that Steve Jobs would make the cover but the magazine selects the person that had the greatest impact during the past year, for better or for worse. He has been mentioned in the Fond Farewells section though.

This year’s choice actually makes sense since all the mass protests were very shocking and really shook the world, and the Time honored all of those who were brave enough to speak their minds and change the mentalities.

The Runners-Up are:

• William McRaven: The Admiral
• Ai Weiwei: The Dissident
• Paul Ryan: The Prophet
• Kate Middleton: The Princess

[Link]

I just came across this recap video of the Los Angeles Qualifier for the 2011 Battle of the Year. Looking at these moves just makes me wonder how it’s even humanly possible.

The Battle of the Year local qualifiers have been going on around the world since April and the last one will be the Middle East qualifier in Dubai on 1st October. Turns out that a Kuwaiti crew called Eletrik Crew is participating in the battle and I found one of their videos below.

Watch out for the the final battle which will be on 19th November in Montpellier, France.

[Link]

McDonald’s is trimming their Happy Meal to make it more ‘healthier’. Well it is a first tiny step since the changes are not that big really. The new Happy Meals will roll out in April 2012 and will have half portion of the fries and few small slices of apple by default and a choice of low-fat chocolate or white milk. Customers can still get all fries or all apples if they choose and soda also remains an option. The toy stays too in spite of all the heat they’ve been getting for attracting kids to junk food.

Here’s the change in the nutritional information IF the customers go for the split portion of apples and fries with low fat milk:

 
They have also planned to reduce 15% sodium by 2015 and cut sodium, added sugars, saturated fats and calories by 2020. But all this change is ONLY for their US restaurants and menus in response to Michelle Obama’s action against childhood obesity. What about the rest of the world? Obesity in Kuwait is one of the highest in the world with about 80% either overweight or obese. If they are making a healthier change, shouldn’t it be for everyone?

[Source]

J.K. Rowling just revealed that Pottermore is a free website that builds an online experience around the reading of Harry Potter books where fans will be able to follow Harry to Hogwarts, get sorted into one of the school’s rival houses and become student wizards themselves.

The website has been developed in partnership with Sony and it’s a mix of social networking forum and an online game where fans will be able to access deleted material from the original books and read Rowling’s extra background details on the characters and places.

The site goes live in October but fans can register today for a challenge on July 31st and one million people who successfully beat the challenge will get invited to join Pottermore early.

Check out the sneak peak into Pottermore and Rowling’s YouTube announcement [Here].

So the suspense is finally over. H&M annouced today that they will be collaborating with Versace for Autum/Winter 2011. The collection will be designed by Donatella Versace from their classic archives featuring a lot of leather, print and colour in exclusive materials at fantastic H&M prices for women, men and selected pieces for the home. It will be available from 17th November.

Donatella had said that she would never do a diffusion line for H&M back in 2008 for the reason that she “worked very hard to put the Versace line in the luxury section and to put the line in H&M would confuse the brand”. I guess the huge success of the collaboration with Jimmy Choo and Lanvin changed her mind. Thanks to the ladies in Kuwait and all over the world who wiped the rails clean within 5 minutes of the launch, I guess we will be seeing more luxury designers opting for a budget line.

[Link]

WPP’s Brandz released their sixth annual report on the Top 100 global brands for 2011. Guess who made it to the top? Apple with its 84% increase in value over the past year, and it pushed down Google that had been on the top spot from the last four years.

The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study conducted by Millward Brown Optimor identifies and ranks the world’s most valuable 100 brands by their dollar value based on financial data combined with consumer measures of brand equity. The raw data for the BrandZ study is collected annually by interviewing consumers and professionals and asking them to evaluate brands in a competitive context from a category they actually shop in.

Here are the top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands for 2011:

These are some of the top brands of different sectors:

• Apparel – Nike
• Beer – Budweiser
• Car – Toyota
• Fast Food – McDonald’s
• Luxury – Louis Vuitton
• Personal Care – Gillette
• Retail – Amazon
• Soft Drink – Coca-Cola
• Technology – Apple
• Telecom – at&t

Their flash-based interactive eReport is pretty neat. Check out the full report for the top brands based on regions and sectors [Here]

Global Finance released their economic report yesterday with a list of the Richest Countries in the World for 2010. The data was measured based on the GDP (PPP) per capita which is the gross domestic product using a purchasing power parity basis which determines the wealth of an average resident taking into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rate of the countries.

Kuwait ranked 14th on the list while Qatar made it to the top and the poorest country turned out to be Congo. Above is a chart of the richest countries in the MENA region with their respective global rank and GDP in US Dollars.

Check out the full list [Here]

May 31st is World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). It was created by the member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1987 and is observed around the world every year on May 31st to encourage a 24-hour abstinence from all forms of tobacco across the globe and draw attention to the negative health effects which leads to deaths worldwide.

Here is a look at Kuwait’s ‘smoking’ figures according to the Ministry of Health:

• 3% of Kuwait’s population are smokers
• An average of 2,330 cigarettes are consumed by a regular smoker each year in Kuwait
• KD 72 million is spent annually on smoking in Kuwait

But as per the Kuwait Society for Preventing Smoking and Cancer (KSSCP), the good news is that around 35% of smokers had quit in 2010 and the MOH is also working hard to combat this habit and its consequences.

Lady Gaga – Judas