I survived the earthquake of 2008!

Well if you haven't heard on the news yet, just before 1am the UK experienced the largest Earthquake in 25 years! I was between wake and sleep so I didn't really understand what was happening - I thought maybe a plane just flew over our flat. But when my entire bed started to rumble and I heard what sounded like our flat going from a townhouse to a fully detached, I realized this was more than just a Boeing 747. Everyone here is safe though and there's no damage to the city (the quake was measured as a 5.2 on the Richter scale). I think one man broke his pelvis when his chimney collapsed on him but otherwise we're all fine. It is pretty cool to say you've experienced an earthquake though...and just more evidence that we are definitely going through some drastic environmental changes - I mean an earthquake has to be rather desperate to strike a place like England...really, could you not have found a more interesting place to 'unlock your plates'?

Ever since I returned from Paris, I've been feeling a little down. I think instead of being homesick I'm Paris-sick. Everything in England is so dull and grey, and we seem to be getting dragged into a slump in terms of the variety of options available to us. So on Monday Zee and I took a day trip to London. We visited the London Aquarium and also went on the all-seeing London Eye (the giant white ferris wheel you can view the entire city from). I found out that the London School of Economics has a PhD program in Communications so I wanted to check out their campus - but I didn't realize they had so many different buildings. I saw their library which is really modern - everything's white and sort of space-like. I've noticed London's all about minimalist design, which is a strange contrast with their traditional buildings like Big Ben and their symbolic figureheads like the royal family, etc. It's almost as if Londoners are trying to escape or completely reject their traditional culture by embracing this super-modern extreme. Toss in artists, business-people and students from every corner of the globe and you've got a city with one serious identity crisis. I'm not sure London is really 'my cup of tea'. It's a fun city to visit for a short time but I can't see myself living there.






What I'm really looking forward to is Mel's visit in three weeks! We are planning to travel to Munich (she has a friend who lives there), Rome or Venice and of course, Paris!!! It should be a fun couple of weeks, a nice reward for submitting my essay and my group assignment (yes, they're both due on the same day!). My next paper will be discussing advertising in a global context, and the extent to which advertisements contribute to a homogeneous global culture. It's quite shocking when you trace most global advertisements back to their original companies, the same 3 major corporations always come up - they control the entire world of marketing. And some people can't stand the idea of seeing a McDonald's or Starbucks in places like Beijing and Mumbai - they see globalization as really just a nicer word for Americanization or Westernization. But I think what we tend to overlook is:

1) that people in Beijing and Mumbai don't want to be kept in the dark, they want access to the same products we do, they want to feel more connected to the rest of the world and;

2) there's also what we call 'glocalization' occuring in these places. That's when a globalized commodity is re-interpreted for local markets. So for example since the majority of Indians don't eat beef, the Big Mac burger becomes the Maharaja burger (which I believe is a meatless patty).

There's a slew of counter-arguments either way. Sometimes I try to see globalization as this wonderful process of cultural exchange which is helping us understand one another and bridge the gap between borders. But other times, I wonder how much globalization is really occurring and how much is the rest of the world really just aspiring to consume American/Western products? There's this little angry puff of smoke that goes off inside me when I walk down the Champs d'Elysees and I see Parisians drinking starbucks coffees instead of sitting in their local cafes and having an authentic cafe au lait. Or when I read about a family-run supply store going under in a small town because a Wal-Mart moved in and drove everyone else bankrupt. But it also has a lot to do with power. I mean we see the United States as one of the most powerful nations in the world, so who wouldn't want to emulate them? Maybe when China and India become the coolest kids on the playground, everyone will start copying them too.

And my dissertation on beauty culture has moved more in this direction since I started thinking about it. Rather than trying to focus on a westernized or euro-centric beauty ideal for women, I'm looking at how universal beauty can unite cultures and races. There are certain features that signal attractiveness across all ethnicities. It has a lot to do with Darwin and Evolutionary Psychology, but basically my hypothesis is that cosmetics companies should place more focus on advertising that appeals to universal beauty rather than focusing on western or hollywood beauty to sell their products. Not only would this improve women's self-image but I think (and hopefully my study will prove this) that those products and advertisements will sell to a wider market and in turn increase profits - look at Dove. My dissertation adviser is really pleased with my work so far, and she's very encouraging and helpful, so I'm really lucky it's headed in such a strong direction.

But the unfortunate part is that the work doesn't do itself. Which is my cue to end off here.