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Monday, January 8, 2018

What Made It So Powerful

An excerpt from the New York Times -

What Politicians Could Learn from Oprah Winfrey
By JAMES PONIEWOZIK

But to argue that Ms. Winfrey should run for president — or shouldn’t — simply because she’s a celebrity oversimplifies the issue. Most celebrities would make terrible candidates. (No offense, Kid Rock.) The real consideration here is why Ms. Winfrey is a celebrity, and all those qualifications were on display in that speech.

It’s a master’s stage performance. It builds from kitchen confession to mountaintop thunder. It shifts perspective cinematically — close in on young Ms. Winfrey sitting on the linoleum floor, pull back to a panorama of America. It uses preacherly rhythms and even cliffhangers (“a young worker by the name of … Rosa Parks”).

But above all, it’s a story. And it’s a story about stories. It moves from the personal (young Ms. Winfrey watching Sidney Poitier win an Oscar) to the communal (women in Hollywood, and women working on farms and even “some pretty phenomenal men”). It links “your truth” and “absolute truth.” It tells the audience: I have my struggle, and I know you have yours, and that connects us all in the sweep of a global struggle.

Conventional politicians can do that too, though it’s not easy or common. Barack Obama was no one’s idea of a shoo-in when he announced his campaign. But he synthesized his biography (as the “kid with a funny name”), his country’s current struggles and an idea of generational social progress into one evocative narrative — change.

People are drawn to stories for a reason: In politics as in art, they say more than a list of bullet points.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/arts/television/oprah-winfrey-president-television.html?hpw&rref=television&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Quote

Even Bill Kristol, newly woke, couldn’t resist joining in: “Oprah: Sounder on economics than Bernie Sanders, understands Middle America better than Elizabeth Warren, less touchy-feely than Joe Biden, more pleasant than Andrew Cuomo, more charismatic than John Hickenlooper. #ImWithHer.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/opinion/oprah-2020-president-globes.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

How Many People Approved This Ad & Thought It Was OK?


What Real Smart People Say About Themselves

From the Atlantic -

How Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves
Hint: not by discussing IQ
By JAMES FALLOWS

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/how-actual-smart-people-talk-about-themselves/549878/?utm_source=&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0

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This article is too good to cheery pick.

Enjoy!


The Ultimate Paper Airplane

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake read by Wanda Sykes

What Would He Do?

From the New Yorker -



https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2018-01-15?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&stream=top-stories

FoldiMate hands-on at CES 2018

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Oprah Winfrey Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille Award Acceptance Speech

Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga - It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Sw...

Calum Scott - You Are The Reason (Official)

Ellen Meets Viral College Acceptance Brothers

Seth Meyers' Monologue at the 2018 Golden Globes

What's the Longest Drivable Distance on Earth?

Harsh Treatment in the Middle East

An excerpt from the OZY -

RISING IN THE MIDDLE EAST: FORCED LABOR FROM AFRICA
By Laura Secorun Palet

It was a Wednesday afternoon in August 2017 and dozens of people were lining up on the platform of Noor Bank metro station, in Dubai. As the train approached, a man jumped in front of it.

The police report revealed he was a 36-year-old migrant worker from Uganda. His embassy said he was likely “frustrated” by poor working conditions, a local daily wrote a few paragraphs on the case, then the news moved on.

But the suicide only punctuated a widespread new pattern of labor exploitation of thousands of African migrant workers in the Persian Gulf States. A recent report by a Ugandan parliamentary committee revealed that, in 2017, at least 35 Ugandans killed themselves in the United Arab Emirates — mostly as a result of unpaid wages and abuse.

While continued international pressure on the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar has managed to improve the working conditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian migrants, recruitment agencies are now moving on to Africa.

http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/rising-in-the-middle-east-forced-labor-from-africa/82554?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01072018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610