Island Chic’s Babble

Here’s a brilliantly simplified visual explanation of the complex crisis of credit that “quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated”. I agree! Never have I understood the credit crunch as well as I did it when I watched these 2 short videos, which are a part of the thesis work in a Media Design Program by Jonathan Jarvis, at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Part 1

Part 2

Go ahead, educate yourself. You will feel a lot less stupid at the end of the two videos than you did before you watched it

Also, if you are interested in Jonathan Jarvis’s thesis work which explores the use of new media to make sense of an increasingly complex world, do visit jonathanjarvis.com or email him on

jonathan.jarvis@gmail.com.

Scary thought…nations are spending millions of dollars on counter terrorism programs and spending endless man-hours and funds on protecting their people from terror. However, it doesn’t seem to be doing us much good.

The issue of terrorism cannot be tackled by nations or groups of nations how powerful they may be politically or how huge their military is. Terrorism definitely disregards all borders and has become a global problem. A more collective global governance approach is needed to tackle this issue.

Instead of being reactive to terror and training huge armies, there needs to be more in depth thinking towards addressing the root cause of where the problem is coming from. Peace and harmony fueled by belief in co-existence, tolerance and mutual respect are no longer relevant as frustrations mounting for years due to discrimination, racial tension, religious differences have given way to something more powerful than any of these beliefs or ideologies.

Whether small or big, rich or poor, powerful or weak, it is time for nations and people to work ‘together’ to eradicate terrorism. Exchanging lists of ‘people who shouldn’t be allowed to travel to your country’ does not necessarily count towards major counter-terrorism efforts.

What we need is nations and multi-national groups co-existing the same way diverse micro-groups of people can live together in a dorm, sit in a university classroom or enjoy a heated academic argument on mutually exclusive viewpoints. It is possible, but only if we all put in a little bit more effort into understanding the views, ideas and lifestyle of people who are different or even contradictory to that of our own. We could call it greater ‘tolerance’!

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Unless a woman with very specific taste in perfume, you will not disappoint them with any one of these!

The decision to nullify the existing Ministry of Atolls Development and moving its staff to various provinces is aligned with this principle of decentralization is definitely a positive step towards democratic governance. It also makes more sense to have decision makers and support staff physically positioned where their services are most relevant to, rather than keeping them at a central work station.

This being said, it is also important that the government looks at the issue of transfer of more than 100 civil servants from the capital Male’ to the provinces in a rehabilitative manner with the least economic and social damage to the people affected as well as the society as a whole. Even though their transfer will most likely have a positive impact on the country at a macro level, looking at the individual circumstances and constraints, such a step may well put the welfare of a considerable number of civil servants at jeopardy.

Currently, more than one third of the Maldives’ population lives in Male’. Centralization of resources, facilities and even basic services has forced increasing numbers of islanders to flock to the capital Male’. With much difficulty and sacrifice, they establish lives on this tiny island as it provides the best health facilities, education and income opportunities in the country. Despite the sheer desire of some islanders to escape the ‘concrete jungle, constraints and limitations in availability of opportunities and resources have crippled them, forcing them to live in Male. This could be ‘n’ number of reasons such as employment opportunities, marriage, kids’ education, family’s heath needs etc.

Such reasons make it highly inconvenient and close to impossible for many civil servants in Male’ to pack their bags and leave Male’. When the government decided to close down the particular office/department and distribute its staff to the provinces, staff members are left with an ultimatum, i.e. transfer their lives overnight or retire from the civil service with an allowance which would not only be insufficient for a healthy life but also incur unreasonable costs to the government at a time of major economic peril. This has been causing a rise in frustration levels of staff members and the usual blame game has started, with petitions, public statements and negative reports.

However, it has made me wonder about who we should blame in this matter, the government, Civil Service Commission or the staff members? The way I look at this situation, government has the best interest of its people at heart and the Civil Service Commission does not have the capacity to offer luxurious rehabilitation to the staff that may have to transfer. Therefore why not look for a mutual solution within the broader picture of civil service?

At the heart of efficient service delivery, lays the notion that talent be positioned where it is needed most. Why don’t civil service transfer Atolls Ministry staff who are unable to move to the provinces, to other government offices in Male’ where additional staff is needed? Unless some of the officials are highly specialized in terms of education and skills, transferring them within the civil service to other organizations is a practice carried out in many of the efficient public service systems such as Singapore and New Zealand. Before announcements for recruitment of new staff be made public for government agencies, if other staff within the civil service are interested, they could be given priority as they are already well acquainted with public service. This could also help balance talent and numbers of staff within the service.

On the other hand, there may be some civil servants already working in Male’ who are interested in voluntary transfer to the provinces for various reasons. If these people are given priority (with due consideration given to required skills and qualifications of the provincial offices), it could help solve a problem which may otherwise escalate in terms of individual as well as collective social and economic discomfort.

Here’s 40 things that UK Mirror says we must know about Jen! Enjoy the list.

1) Jennifer, who turned 40 on February 11 2009, is six years and four months older than love rival Angelina Jolie.

2) Jen was once slapped by a tramp dressed as Santa. She said: “He backhanded me. Really hard. I was stunned. It’s fun growing up in New York.”

3) Aniston has had two nose jobs to correct a deviated septum. Her last one was done by Dr Raj Kanodia, who also did Cameron Diaz’s hooter.

4) Which perhaps explains why boyfriend John Mayer is so attracted to Jen. He previously dated Diaz, as well as actress/singer Jessica Simpson.

5) Jennifer worked as a bike messsenger before hitting the big time

6) Her godfather was late Kojak actor Telly Savalas. He died when Jen was 25

7) Jennifer was a Goth at school. She said: “At one point, my hair was shaved about an inch above the ear. I had the short hair and the big black outfits and the black liquid eyeliner that made me look like a vampire, with all sorts of pins sticking out of my body parts.”

Jen doesn’t like fans with camera phones. She said: “My favorite move is when people pretend that they’re on the phone and they kind of dial and take the picture at the same time.”

9) Last year, Forbes magazine ranked Jennifer second in its annual survey of most valuable celebrity faces – based on how many copies were sold of magazines with her picture on the cover. Alas for Jen, Angelina Jolie was number one.

10) Jen jokes that she, Pitt and Jolie go away together for weekend’s in swanky The Hamptons. She said: “Can you imagine? That’d be hysterical: I’ve got Zahara on my hip, and Knox…”

11) Having appeared on the cover of GQ’s March 2005 edition wearing only denim shorts, Jen appeared on the cover of GQ’s January 2009 edition wearing only a tie.

12) Jennifer’s first words in Friends – uttered while wearing a wet wedding dress – were: “Oh God Monica hi! Thank God! I just went to your building and you weren’t there and then this guy with a big hammer said you might be here and you are, you are!”

13) Her last words in Friends – 10 series later – were “Okay, should we get some coffee?”

14) Jen recently rescued a stray Husky dog which had run into Hollywood traffic. It turned out to belong to her sometime hairdresser Chris McMillan.

15) It’s McMillan who is credited with inventing ‘The Rachel’, the bouncy, chin-length layered cut which made Aniston a style icons during Friendsmania.

16) Jennifer used to date dreadlocked, tubby Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz. But she didn’t sleep with him. Fellow Friend Courtney Cox did.

17) Aniston was mildly cross-eyed as a child because of a weak muscle in her right eye. Today, she usually wears blue contact lenses although her natural eye colour is brown.

18) Jen has admitted a fondness for marijuana. She said: “I enjoy it once in a while. There is nothing wrong with that. I wouldn’t call myself a pothead.”

19) Despite appearing at a Stand Up To Cancer benefit last year, Jennifer is an on/off cigarette smoker. She and Pitt once had matching Dunhill lighters worth around £250 apiece.

20) Jennifer is half-Greek but does not like Greek food – although she says “I bake a mean baklava”.

21) Jennifer’s grandfather, who owned a Pennsylvania diner, changed the family’s name from Anastassakis before she was born. In the season seven finale of Friends, the first name that Jen reads out on the announcement board for the Greek Wedding is Anastassakis

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22) In 1990, Jen appeared in a spin-off sitcom based on Matthew Broderick’s 1986 hit film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. She played the lovable slacker’s sister Jeannie, played in the movie by Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey. Ferris was played by Charlie Schlatter, who starred opposite Kylie Minogue in The Delinquents.

23) The Bueller spin-off lasted only 13 episodes before being replaced by the long-running kids’ show Blossom. Her previous sitcom, Molloy, lasted only seven episodes.

24) Jen’s first big movie role was in the 1993 low-budget horror movie Leprechaun. Her dialogue included the memorable line: “That thing is a leprechaun and we’ve gotta find a way to stop it!” The leprechaun, who at one point crushes an adversary to death by jumping on his chest while riding a pogo stick, was played by 2-foot-11 British actor Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in Return Of The Jedi.

25) Though cinemagoers got a dimly-lit and distant back view of Aniston naked in The Break-Up, she is unlikely to ever strip off completely on film. “I’m not comfortable doing nude scenes,” she said. In 2007, Universal sued blogger Perez Hilton after he posted shots of Jen topless on The Break-Up’s set.

26) In 2005, Jen played against type in Derailed as a mysterious woman who tempts Clive Owen into an affair, is raped at gunpoint and finally – SPOILER ALERT! – is revealed to be in cahoots with the villain. The film made only a modest profit and Aniston admitted she would never made another thriller, saying: “Derailed kind of… derailed. Thrillers are tough. I’m glad I did it, but I don’t need to do these kinds of movies. It’s kind of like caviar. I don’t need to have it again.”

27) Aniston’s 2000 wedding to Brad Pitt was a modest affair. It cost over a million dollars and featured a 40-piece gospel choir, a Greek bouzouki band, 50,000 flowers and fireworks exploding over the Pacific.

28) When Pitt and Aniston divorced in 2005, with the actress citing “unreasonable behavior”, their £46million settlement included Jen getting custody of the couple’s £15million mansion in Malibu, California. She no longer lives there.

29) Jennifer’s new gaff is a one-story, 10,000 square foot place in Beverley Hills. Its walls are travertine – the same stone used to construct Rome’s Colosseum – and its front doors are giant twin slabs of bronze. She lives there with her dogs, 24-hour security staff and an English butler called Phil.

30) Early in the filming of Along Came Polly, Jennifer broke her toe on an Ottoman footstool at home. It took her five months to fully recover.

31) Jen sounds worringly passionate about her corgi-terrier mix, Norman, whom she is said to treat to a £100 pooch massage each week. She said: “He’s just a person in a furry outfit. He’s a wise old man who could, with a look, with one stare, could crush me. He’s a laser light beaming into my soul.”

32) Jennifer loves Norman so much she likes to sleep alongside him in his doggie bed. She said: “I know that sounds insane. It’s shocking that I can fit in his bed but, hey, we all get lonely.”

33) She sounds a bit less keen on her other dog, a white shepherd mix. “Dolly has chewed expensive rugs,” she said. “One time I saw her with a shoe in her mouth, and that habit ended right there. I just ripped that little thing out of her mouth. She figured out, ‘I don’t touch these things with heels and leather.’”

34) The fate of Enzo, a puppy given to Jen by former boyfriend Tate Donovan – best known as Jimmy Cooper in The OC – is unknown.

35) Jen has a long-running feud with her mother, actress Nancy Dow, an
d did not invite her mum to her wedding to Pitt. Dow wrote about their estrangement in a 1999 book From Mother and Daughter to Friends, A Memoir.

36) In the book, Dow revealed that little Jennifer had been a strange child who spoke to imaginary friends she called “the little people” and once had a crying fit because she could “hear the grass talking”.

37) Dow’s most infamous role came as a murder victim in 1969 psychedelic sex/horror shocker The Ice House. Jen’s dad John has had a more successful career as an actor, starring in US daytime soap The Days Of Our Lives for 21 years until 2008.

38) Jennifer attended New York’s High School For The Performing Arts – the school which featured in the movie and TV series Fame. Her classmates included Cher’s lesbian daughter, Chastity Bono.

39) Jen finds the public perception that she is unlucky in love and has never got over Pitt ridiculous. However, she recently revealed that she still keeps tapes of Pitt’s old mobile phone messages to her. “They’re like love letters,” she said.

40) Jennifer insists she isn’t really 40. She said: “I don’t feel 40. I’m not saying I’m 40. I’m 30-10.”