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Monday, June 13, 2011

Max FAIRNESS for Max IMPRESSION?

FAIR AND LOVELY: a very famous product in South Asia that promises consumers to lighten their skin. The advertisement’s promises consumer a better life with a better complexion. If you are fair, you automatically have better opportunities in the world. Better opportunities in work, marriage, society, etc. 

Yes, this is a popular brand in South Asia that is telling people indirectly that they're not good enough because their complexion is not light. 

In this day and age where women all over the world suffer from serious low self-esteem from body image to appearance issues- such brands instigate the matter with their prejudicial and superficial endorsement.


Is this right? Should this even be legally promoted? The brand itself is not essentially an issue but the way it’s promoted is simply not right. Advertisements that show that life is a misery when you have dark skin are promotion at its worst. They play with the consumer’s self-esteem.

This is a moral injustice that makes people feel bad about their self-image. To sell their products by claiming you will only possess "maximum impression with maximum fairness" is atrocious. One's beauty should not be judged with such classifications. 

This needs to be stopped and it needs to be stopped now!

Monday, May 30, 2011

My Name Is Mohammed And I Am Not A Terrorist!

After the 9/11 incident, every Muslim in America was scrutinized. Just being a Muslim made you a proper terrorist suspect. Life for a Muslim after that incident was one of extreme turmoil.
I remember an incident in 2002 when my family and I came to visit US and how our immigration took much longer than everyone else. It went to a point where the immigration officer after learning my father's first name was Mohammed took us to Homeland Security. This went on for hours before the officer declared us okay to leave.
My relatives who lived in the states also suffered from a lot of scrutiny at every aspect of their daily lives. It came to a point that one of my cousins simply gave up and changed his first name Mohammed.
This was what life had become. If your skin was brown, you were questioned about religious views. If you were Muslim, you viewed as high-risk individual.
The truth is that the 9/11 incident was extremely tragic where aside from others many Muslims also lost their lives. However, it was mainly the Muslims that were blamed for its happening. The Muslims were made to suffer because our freedom of speech in this nation had expired. It was not right and we still never received a proper apology for it. It's time we got one for what we had suffered through. It's about time!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Life as we know it

It’s hard to believe how much my life has changed in a matter of months.  Today, I live by myself alone in a foreign country and do everything on my own.  The life I had previously is long gone and is only alive in memories.

In my culture, children in households are not even expected to separate from their parents. Even after marriage, it is the most natural thing for boys to live with your parents and girls to live with them until their married off.

Hence, when I decided on studying abroad- my parents were more than a little reluctant. To a point that initially they would not even hear of it. They would say, “Young girls don’t leave home to live in foreign countries. It is simply not right”. Their belief was that where you don’t have a guardian you cannot be expected to survive.
 
To a certain extent, before I doubted very much whether I will be able to survive on my own. This is because growing up I was highly dependent on my parents. But it was a dream that I really wanted to accomplish. I was willing to undergo all the hardship in the world to make that dream come true.

So, today when I think of the life I previously had where my parents helped me in every single struggle but are no longer here I feel proud. I feel pride I am alone overcoming all my obstacles. It’s true that there are still many times when I feel helpless when faced with a challenge and I still do struggle quite a bit to adjust. However, it’s no longer struggling to survive but struggling to acquire my goals.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Sounds fishy?!


Growing up with two brothers, wrestling was an avid entertainment watch in our household. I remember knowing every single wrestler of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) organization. One wrestler that I especially liked was Chris Benoit because of his straight, unambiguous and modest personality. Having said that when I came across the double-murder suicide news about him I was extremely shocked!


The whole news was highly appalling to say the least especially due to my initial impression of Benoit. The shock was not limited to that extent as the news in length was even more wary and disjointed. 

The thing that really grabbed my attention was the appearance of a Wikipedia post stating the death of Benoit's wife before the bodies were actually discovered. Not only did it appear before the discovery, it appeared an alarming 14 hours before the police found the victim's body. 

The whole appearance of such a post brought even more distress to the investigation as the police were now faced with disarray for a new piece of disjointed information. After due investigation, someone came out with a confession on Wikinews. The anonymous individual stated that his post was made out of pure coincidence. His confession allowed police to let him go as the police had no other grounds to hold him.

The major problem is probably the concept of Wikipedia and how people are influencing it. The ability for everyone in any part of the world to distort and change information on a website subjects to trouble. The fact that an issue such as this can occur allows possibilities for more in the future. So, what is our solution for it? Do nothing about it because it’s too much effort to deal with it and believe it to be a coincidence. Or, perhaps really evaluate the mishaps of the internet as such occurrences are greatly disturbing.