Minossota's icy road conditions

Last week, CNN reported that freezing rain and ice-covered roads had hitherto caused an average of 370 crashes in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Since those alarming numbers were shared on national TV, the state law enfocement, local agencies and media started to worked together to do not let that number drastically go up.

Updates on wheather conditions were shared through social media channels such as facebook and twitter to those who solicited to receive such messages.

Although these harsh weather conditions are common each year, nights and mornings of freezing drizzle and rain were not expected to hit like they did. In response to the high demand of information, more links were created to let residents know what precautions to take depending on the weather. Hotlines for road assistance were also shared with the general public. Those comming out of town experienced lots of cancellations and delays at airports.

Although Minnesota's plan for a weather crisis was late, it became effective. Local TV and radio stations let people know where they could get more info on the hours to unfold. Likewise, internet traffic was well handled. The IT people did not let the websites crashh.

Hotel explosion kills staff and 5 guests

On Sunday, there was an explosion at a hotel in Mexico's Caribbean coast. Although the incident is still under investigation, two hypothesis have been proposed. One is that the explosion was caused by an operation malfunction of the gas pipe lines. The second guess speculates on the accumulation of natural gas in underground caves. A terrorist attack is out of the question.

The 676-room Gran Riviera Princess hotel, located in Playa del Carmen, has not addressed the press. This lack of communication cannot be excused. Different local and national newspapers have traveled to Quintana Roo to report on the news. The State prosecutor of Quintana Roo has been the one sharing the updates. She is doing her job by sharing details of the investigation. However, the hotel must also show that it cares about its different publics.

The hotel's website does not display anything on what happened. A change must take place shortly. Many tourists who are contemplating traveling to Playa del Carmen will be demanding for explanations sooner or later. It is better to start sharing information as soon as possible, rather than being answering hundreds of phone calls in the next few days.

Out of the eight people that were killed, five of them were guests.

All five were Canadian. As far as Canadians go, many that were vising Mexico left the country after the explosion. Many feared that the explosion was a terrorist attack. Speculations and rumors like this will easily multiply if they are not addressed soon. If the hotel does not want to suffer, it must take action.

LIONSGATE is at risk. The studio recently announced that it is facing harsh financial difficulties . Expenses and distribution of recently released films have not produced a lot of revenue.

There are rumors that the executive representatives from the studioy are meeting with MGM reps to secretely discuss and propose combining the two studios. Both companies have experienced millionaire losses in the past quarter.

Not long ago, CEO Jon Feltheimer said that LIONSGATE will continue to do its best to don't fall into bankruptcy.
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It is greately appreciated that LIONSGATE is open about their financial problems, before it takes many for surprise. Doing so, gives them extra time for those working or investing to reconsider their decisions regarding the company.

Open communication between the company and its publics earns them respect and trust.

Just when I was starting to think that Disney stars like Demi Lovato could not go into rehab, the unexpected happened. Her representative announced today that she willbe out of the spotlight for a while. Why? Well, let's take a a look at the statement that was released. Lovato's representative said, "Demi has decided to take personal responibility for her actions and seek help. She is doing just that. She regrets not being able to finish her tour, but is looking forward to getting back to work inthe near future."


Wait a second. What actions is she talking about? Mmm...there is something suspicious here. let's dig up at what else was said. "Lovato left her tour early this weekend in order to seek medical treatment for emotional and physical issues she has dealt with for some time," her rep siad. Oh OK. I was starting to worry. it is not about drugs or alcohol. No.No. She has an eating disorder and is emotionallly distressed. What a relief!

This in no way will affect her career. When stars go through emotional crises like this, their image is not as badly affected. The public tends to be more empathic with these situations, and although there will be some claims for the shows to be cancelled her fans will always come back for whenever she is ready to be back on the stage.

A little bit on the history of what caused these medical conditions was included in the press release. This always come in handy when helping the public formulate their judgement on the matter. Being open about your business is always helpful only IF you are a celebrity. Since you are already a spotlight there is nothing to hide. Might as well let people know what is going on since the beginning, before they find out in a more abrupt way.

I may not be a huge fan, but I can't deny that I'm not a little sad that such a bright and charismatic satar is going to lose her brightness for a while.

Glee gets targeted by angry parents

Since last week, The Parents Television Council has overtly made known their discontent for the pictures featured on the November 2010 issue of GQ Magazine. The pictures of actresses Lea Michele and Diana Argon are "near-pornographic" and are on the "border of pedophilia," the council says. On the other hand, GQ Editor in Chief Jim Nelson has not said much about the accusations; he has opted not to express a lot of comments on the matter on behalf of the magazine. Nevertheless, on his own opinion he stated that it is disappointing that parents these days don't know how to "divide reality from fantasy."

Whatever opinion PTC gives about the photo shoot or any other content on the magazine will fade in the air. First of all, GQ does not target families as its main demographic. Secondly, PTC has a reputation of over exaggerating.

Celebrities, and other public figures aware of the scandal have qualified PTC's accusations as "stupid" and "pointless." Billy Ray Cyrus, whose daughter has been criticized by the PTC in the past said that PTC "has recently been spending all its time attacking people rather than promoting family television."

Although a lot of parents considered Glee to be family show, many do not consider it to be such. So there is not a common ground to express that by allowing the actresses model "the creators of the program have established their intentions on the show's directions. And it isn't good for families." FOX and GQ are two independent entities; they do not work together. There's not good reasoning behind to suggest that with the nature of these pictures, the show will now become more sexy.

GQ have managed well not to directly address the comments made by PTC. Their comments can't hurt the publication.

A blade in my meat?

On September 30th, a former Tyson Foods employee found a blade near his working area, cut it into four pieces and threw it into the meat. A witness immidiately reported what happened. Authorities were called and the incident started to be investigated. 20-year-old Nwee Lah was arrested and taken under the custody of Amarillo, TX authorities.

All the meat touched by Lah was retrieved as soon as possible. The pieces of meat with the blades were found. They never left the perimeters of the packaging company.

Since the incident ocurred all information was kept confidential. Nothing was shared with the media. At the time, there was no need to let customers know because there was no risk involved to them. It was not until Lah was found guilty when the story was released.

At first glace it wasn't clear why Tyson would release this story. By doing so the company is admitting that their installations are not safe. Then why are they opening about it? I think is so that they won't have any skeletons in the closet. It would be more detrimental to have the story released in the future with a similar or worse circumstance.

Tyson has taken this as an opportunity to reinforce a message to their customers telling them that are the most important for the company. Spokesman Gary Mickelson said, " The safety of our beef products is vital to the continued sucess of our business, so we take matteres as this very seriously. We contacted local law enforcement about this incident after conducting our own investigation." With this statement the company sets an image of trust.

Indonesia train crash

Everyone agrees that last week's train crash in Indonesia is a wake up call for the country's poor law enforcement on safety regulations. Too bad this tragedy had to become one of the podromes that hopefully will lead to a better system.

Yesterday PT kereta Api, the state-run railway company, gave a press conference to finally adress the issue with the press. Let's keep in mind that their response call was delayed for about 4 days! Not 1. Not 2. Not 3. 4! The spokesperson, Director General of railway at the Ministryof Transportation, apologized for what happened, shared his condolences and promised to improve the railway service in Indonesia. Inmmidiately after his remarks, without anyone asking he said that the company could pay families a significant amount in compensation for the lost lives of their loved ones. Really? What does this show? You guessed it. Money will be dearly missed.

In the mean time, the engineer driving the train has been arrested. Investigators are still trying to determine whether it was human error or a mechanical problem what caused the accident. If found guilty, the engineer could face up to 6 1/2 years in jail.

Train crashes in Indonesia, 35 people perish

Tragedy striked Indonesia as two passenger trains collapsed into each other early Saturday morning. 35 passengers perished, while other 15 are fighting for their lives. Information about the victims has been gathered from all the different hospitals were the victims were taken. Some corpses were difficult to identify due to the injuries they received.

Hours after the accident happened, the president of the country conveyed his condolence to the families of the victims. Two days after the incident, no statements from the CEOs have been made. They nor any other representative has made an appearence to address the issue.

The reason of the accident is still under investigation. So far, allegations indicate human error from the machinist.

When trying to access information about the incident from the websites of Argo Anggrek Railway and Senja Utama Trains, their pages constantly marked error. 24 hours after the accident the sites still showed the same message. News websites are the ones that have facilitated the easy flow of information between both organizations and the public. . No one has assumed responsability. The only information circulating is that that may help families reunite with their loved ones or claim bodies. A list with the names of the hospitals was made available via ALL VOICES, news website.

The names of two drivers, allegedly involved in the crash, were released. Apparently they stand alone, their employers have not showed their support. They were arrested by police for further questioning.

Information has been limited to gather because majority of them is, or appears to be, Indonesian. I would assume that because of the magnitude of the proplem and the global attention that the news are receiving there would be some more information available in English.

Cougars' # 7, not so lucky anymore.

University of Houston's quarterback, Case Keenum, is out of the season for good. Despite this valuable loss, cougar fans' are encouraged to continue supporting the team.

During a game against UTEP, Keenum was injured. He was carried off the field with the help of two paramedics and wearing a face expression that said it all: dissappointment. The game continued and Keenum's absence was not much felt- for his job was already done; he had made wonderful strategic passes that had helped his teammates score and establish a leading significant difference between UH versus the adversary.

Days later, his medical condition was still unknown. No comments were made. The silent from the athletic administrators and those in the same circle were killing everyone. Not talking about the subject made everyone more concerned. The Daily Cougar, the school newspaper, was only reporting on how UH had earned a fantastic victory, with a brief (that could be reduced to nothing) mention on the injury. Speculations started to circulate regarding Keenum's participation in an upcoming game against UCLA. Fans feared. "Will their star not play in such an important game? How bad was his knee?" Finally, the day before the game, an announcement was made: Keenum would play.

As both team stepped on Rose Bowl, UH students were expecting that their star would play as good as he did before what had happened against UTEP. Those in the stadium, and those watching the game on TV hoped that their quarterback would lead the team to a game well played. Unfortunately, that did not happened. Keenum was injured once again, and with that so did the end of his era.

Now that his injury is of more severe than the first one, UH football coach Kevin Sumlim, has been more public about the Keenum's condition. He has issued a statement declaring Keenum's absence of for the rest of the season. If Sumlim had been more public since the beginning, UH fans would not have been as disappoinment as they are now. Their hopes would not have fallen as bad as they did on Sunday night, when Sumlim spoke to the press. Now, the UH Athletic's PR department will have to work on a campaign that may motivate students to be even more supportive to the school's football team than before. An editorial on the Daily Cougar is already doing its part. It reads, "It may seem terrible a change in direction for the Cougar's 2010 season, but now is the time for Houston fans to truly shine. As always we'll be at Robertson Stadium for the Cougar's next game, and we hope to see the stands overflowing again."

Keenum's athletic debacle has been put under a magnifying glass. Let's hope it is managed better. One lesson Slim should learn is to never try to hide something he can't.

China airplane crash...again

For a while, I have not watched on the news or read in the newspapers anything about the Chinese airplane crash. I know it's been about a month since the tragedy, but I was expecting that media would give at least a last update before "closing the case." If one googles the news, no results show updated information. The last reports date August 26 or (if your lucky) August 28. The only newspaper covering the story is an Asian newspaper.

On their latest article, it is reported that investigation dealing with the airplane crash has come up with a new issue affecting the airline. Apparently, due to the recent rapid grow of the airline traffic and subsequent demand for pilots, many pilots lied about their qulification on their resumes. "Some of hte pilots changed their jobs many times, and they constantly distorted their resumes," a CAAC cited report said. "Some of them were former mlitary pilots and became civil pilots."

I really don't see how Henan airlines will recover from this one. More and more issues keep popping out and none of them have been addressed directly by the company. They're not taking any steps toward the cleansed of their name. The only steps they're taking is to an unrecoverable debacle. Perhaps a change of name would be suitable in this instance.

Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/Li15Ad01.html

BOOM! Explosive news on Ferrari

The image of a Ferrari's exploding is more likely to be associated as part of a scene in an action movie, but this became true last week in many cities across the U.S and overseas. Not very Hollywood, I must say.



For high speed car aficionados, a Ferrari is a dream come true. They can go from zero to 60 mph in just over a few seconds. However nobody is a fan of fire breaking out of their $253,000 car, especially while driving it.

Five owners of the newly launched 2010458 Italia reported catching fire while speeding. The innovative technology of the car was expected to surprise the public but it ended up disappointing them.

So far the company has said that an adhesive close to the engine is likely the cause of the fires. "This adhesive can melt due to overheating and ignite flames," Ferrari spokesman Stefano Lai said.

Incidents involving the 458 had been reported for a couple of months but the reports were thought to be isolated instances, not something that required a lot of attention.

Car dealers have asked their customers get their cars checked for a replacement of the engine. With the objective to prevent more incidents, cars not yet purchased were pulled out of the market for further inspection. Numbers average 1,100 cars.

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1 incident should have been enough for the company to take action. How many reports were they expecting to receive? In addition to ignoring the signs of the problem, when notified that this was serious, the company didn't issue a statement to let their customers know of the situation. With the late response they may jeopardize the trust of their customers

Although a well-known brand, Ferrari is not a company of the masses. They don't produce that many cars for the general public. Obviously, their market is for those who are most afluent. Considering this, if someone would have gotten hurt, their lawyers would be sweating like crazy right now. They better look at the signs next time.

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/02/business/main6830054.shtml
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/tn-dpt-0903-ferrari-20100902,0,5231106.story

"The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless"-Herodotus

A week after one of Henan Airlines commercial flights went down, the families and relatives of the passengers who perished will receive a compensation of about half a million dollars for each member they lost, this in accordance to the regulations established by the Chinese civil aviation laws.

While this families are still in mourning, the cause of the accident has not yet been determined. "Preliminary investigation showed that the plane missed the runway," reported the Associated Press on Monday August 30. As the collection of testimonies of the survivors continues, these -so far- confirm the suspicion that the airport was not properly equipped to light the path of descending airplanes in foggy conditions.

Witnesses' accounts say that the airliner broke in half before it crashed to the ground. After that "a huge blaze enveloped the wreckage and the flames reddened the surrounding forests," said Hanan Airlines website.

Although their website displays a public apology, the company has showed a lack sensitivity to the subject. The header of the page displays a collage made out of colorful pictures showing a burning airplane with a headline that reads, "Very deep sorry over Henan Airlines' 8.24 air crash." Despite this, few tasteful efforts to show empathy have been made. Henan has a lot to do in order to show they sincerely care about their customers.

Sources: http://sify.com/news/china-plane-crash-victims and http://shanghaiist.com/2010/08/26/henan_airline

Airplane crash

China has a reputation of having the best technology resources in the world. Ironically and sadly, it also has the worse reputation when it comes to the safety of that technology. Their stigmatic specialty is in aerial catastrophes. In the past four years, China has had 10 serious airplnae crashes.

On the night of August 24, a domestic Chinese commercial flight crashed as it lost control attempting to land at Lindu Airport, causing the death of half of those on board.

As soon as the news of the incident began to be covered by the media, speculations and hypothesis began to circulate amongst newsrooms and the desks of federal agencies. In order to cease those rumors six central Chinese government agencies were called to investigate the cause of the accident. The top hypothetical reasons behind the crash are the bad lighting and terrain of the airport, and weather landing conditions. Human error has been considered but not as strongly as the previous reasons.

Demand and Supply

China's aviation market has rapidly developed in the past years. Unable to satisfy the high demand of daylight daily flights airlines have been forced to build small regional airports in areas previously considered unpractical for nighttime aviation.

If findings from the investigation confirm that the crash is linked to the negligence to equip airports with strong lighting against the low visibility caused by seasonal weather conditions of Northern China, both the Chinese government and airlines serving passengers under those conditions will face a serious crisis.

Thumbs up, thumbs down

Up to this moment, Lian Jiakum, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety has expressed his positive outlook at the disaster. He said, "the plane crash is a lesson for the civil aviation industry, for every pilot and every crew." His initial message to the public expresses sympathy to the general concern to track those responsible and make recommendations to China's government on how to prevent disasters such as this one. Lian's positive approach to the situation attempts to lower any bad present or future impressiona, as well as gaining trust for hte future establishment of an open communication among his publics.

Henan Airlines first action after the crash has not been the best. Days after the incident, the airline announced the removal of its president and made a public apology to those who were affected. By offering an apology the company has admitted to be guilty of a misdeed that has not yet been officially proved. In addition to this, by removing the president they have given the impresssion that his removal is linked to his incompetency to lead in moments of distress; therefore leading to think that he wasn't supposed to hold such position in the first place.

(Information was gathered from the following websites: bloomerg.com, cnn.com, csmonitor.com, and reuters.com)

New semester...new crises

Fall is here. Although it's hard to believe with daily tempereatures averaging the 90s. Leaves are still green, but as far as the students from the University of Houston are concerned, the days of summer freedom are gone. Yes. We're back at school.

There are new things to learn, talk and blog about. However, to my much sadness, I must admit that I won't have a lot of time to blog about ALL of them. Because of this, I'll give priority to a special request made by one of my professors.

As part of a semester-long assignment, I've been asked to keep track of current crises- mega problems faced by government, companies, or individuals. I must pick one that interests me and then try to analyze the situation. in the Spring of 2010, I wrote my entries based on my observations on linguistic matters. The Fall of 2010 will not deal with that. We will talk about pure drama.

Are you ready?

Can't believe summer is almost here! Although I won't be going out of town, as I had previously plan, I am looking for opportunities that will allow me to have a good time. I still don't know what I will be doing, but I always leave that room for suggestions. Do any of you have any? Come on! Share some. I am sure I am not the only one who because of financials and/or work won't be leaving our beautiful city.

Meet the Fockers

On Wednesday, after a long day at school and work, as soon as I got home I threw myself on the couch ready to be relieved by the "anesthetic for the pain of the modern world:" television. As I was flipping through the channels, a scene from the movie "Meet the Fockers" caught my attention. A grandfather, portrayed by Robert De Niro, was grooming his 1-year-old grandchild to be a genius. He was teaching him all kinds of communication skills -including baby sign language, and pictographic language. I was surprised on his efforts to rear his child in to the next big thing.

I have seen enough TV announcements like "Your Baby Can Read" enough times to assume that there are desperate parents trying to help their children on becoming successful. But..Come one! Give children a break. They must learn at their own speed. Don't think that I underestimate children's learning ability. I just think that children should be encouraged to learn, not forced.

What do you think?

How rude!

Politeness varies in different cultures and languages. In the Tongan community it is accustomed to burp after every meal to show your host that you enjoyed the food. My mother, who is Mexican, would beat the heck out of me if I ever did that regardless of how much I enjoyed the meal.

Linguistic realivity is not only expressed verbally. It can be expressed in our actions and reactions. Being aware of the cultural differences of others and our own helps us more communicate more effectively. Effectiveness in interpersonal, collective or mass communication is essential everywhere.

Linguistic efforts

A few days ago, my friends and I decided to try an unfamiliar type of cuisine. We visited a restaurant located in the north of Houston. When I opened the menu I was surprised to notice some singuilarities. Previous my visit, I have always encountered "bilingual" menus. In other words, if the restaurant was offering any type of ethnic food, the menu would give out the name of the dish in the language of the country from which the dish originated and then translated it into English- if possible. The menu in this restaurant was indeed bilingual; it had the names of the dishes in both English and Spanish. What got my attention was that in addition to the translation was what seemed like an imitation of a phonetic alphabet. This imitation tried to reproduce Spanish pronunciations in English.

Although these efforts do not compete with the IPA, they are worth of respect. I was glad to notice people's appreciation of other languages, and the tolerance for those who can't speak one's language.

Wait...Where are you from?

I am in the process of reading "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh. At first, I was hesitant to read it because I think there are a lot of books about the nostalgia of British nobility. Nevertheless, I checked it out from the library. I must admit that I am in love with the story.

Anyway... I am not going to dedicate this entry to the book. However, there was a situation in the story that prompted me to ask this question.

In the story, Charles Ryder invites a friend to dine with him and his father. When the friend arrives, Charles' father greets him. During the first 2 minutes of hte conversation Charles' father makes a comment to which the friend does not respond as the father was expecting. The father used a colloquialism that he expected could help in break the ice. Not achieving his objective, the father assumed that his failure was linked to the cultural background of the friend. He assumes the young man has been out of the country for too long to the extend that he has lost his Britishness. For the rest of the dinner, whenever the father wanted to use a common British words he gave an explanation right after. He used phrases like "in your country" or "in your culture." At the end of hte night when Charles and hsi friend are saying goodbye, the friend made a remark. He said, what are interesthing fella is your father, he treated me like if I was American." It turns out that the friend was indeed British but from a distant region.

Have you ever been questioned your nationality or background because of your dialect or accent?

Oops...Negative politeness.

As a member of my sorority, I recently participated in Cougar Preview. For those of you who are not aware, Cougar Preview is an opportunity for upcoming fresmen to familiarize themselves with student organizations. It also serves as an opportunity for student organizations to network amongst each other. Towards the end of the event, a student approached my organization and stragely introduced himself. He handed us a copy of the Daily Cougar, pointed to an article ha had previously circled in red and simply said, "Read! It's about me!" The article was indeed about him. After quickly we finished reading the article we took our eyes away from the newspaper and waited for what he had to say.

He then delivered a speech that invited us to collaborate with him in a project. I liked the enthusiasm he put into his invitation of supporting his Cougar Patrol. Despite his good rhetoric, his speech was victimized by hideous colorful vocabulary. I would not be exaggerating by saying that he finished every sentenced with words like "Shit," "Fuck" and "Damn."

Those hearing his message felt uncomfortable towards his choice of words. Every time he spit one out, his listeners would turn around or simply ignore him.

His choice of style and vocabulary failed to establish the relationship he wanted to achieve. His objective, perhaps, was that by using this colloquial language he could make us feel at ease in order to relate to him. He obviously failed.

Second first impressions do not exist. Politeness involves expressing oneself appropriately in terms of social distance and respecting status differences. Being polite means getting the linguistic expression of social distance as far as your addressee is concerned. Be cautious to get it right the first time.

Introduction

Hello. Welcome to my blog!

Wow! I never thought I would ever write those words. When I was first introduced to the idea of creating a site for the posting of my thoughts I was not very excited. Why? Mmm...I really don't know but I have a good guess: Pressure.

I am blessed to live in a country in which majority of the people are literate; they can both read and write. however, not all of them know how to properly distinguish what is worth reading and writing. Trash is not just found on the sidewalks. Sometimes, it is part of our personal and public libraries and our "favorites" of our website search.

Everyday, I am to be the best literate person I can. "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report of praiseworthy, [I] seek after these things."

I hope that my postings will not be trash and will truly be WORTh at least 5 MINUTES of your time. If they are not, let me know. In the mean time, enjoy.