Tangled : Change In Disney Stories?

Tangled opened up this week and has been doing really well, it has raised up to 100 Million. This is the story of a new and different Rapunzel who is curious and adventuresome. The movie has received good reviews so far, in fact people are comparing it to Shrek. The movie has everything for everyone, it is not the typical fairytale story that there is a beautiful and subtle princess who is in trouble and only a prince can rescue her. This movie is an adventure for both boys and girls. Disney's story have changed in the past few years and in a good way, they are moving away from the conventional stories which have been criticized by many feminists. The biggest change that we saw in Disney was after they made The Princess and the Frog. The lead characters were black in ethnicity and this story is about a girl who works hard to reach her goals. The male character in this story is a spoiled prince who changes after meeting this girl and after having to live as frogs for a day. In a way it was the opposite of typical fairy tales.

Disney's fairy tales have been a big part of every young girls life and many of the cartoons are big part of young boys lives. Usually the first movies that young children see are of Disney therefore they are important in their socialization and building their world view. Bringing diversity in these movies can help reduce conventional ideals of beauty and power and help promote female empowerment and equality.

Billboard On Shahra-e-Faisal

Recently a billboard advertisment caught my eye and for a while it left me confused until i reached close to it and I could examine it closely. The advertisment is of Cadburys Dairy Milk Chochlate. When i first saw it from a distance it looked like there were three men on it, one was sitting on the top, one at the bottom and one was hanging in the middle and for a while I was confused as to what are these men doing there? They didn't look like workers but when I came closer to the billboard I saw they were dummies ! Pretty confusing, many people would say thats just stupid but I say brilliant advertisement. The whole idea of billboards are to catch a persons attention while they are on the road and this caught everyones attention.During the time we were trying to figure out who what these men are doing, our minds very reading dairy milk chocolate, and therefore it registered in our heads. I couldn't take a picture of it but the picture above is something similar to what was on that billboard. The billboard is located on the connecting bridge between Shahra-e-Faisal and Defence Phase 2.

Karachi Plane Crash

KARACHI: At least 12 people were killed when a Russian-made cargo plane crashed in a fireball seconds after taking off from Karachi on Sunday.
Rescue workers recovered 12 bodies from the crash site, including four identified as local labourers, and the death toll was expected to rise.
Authorities said the Ilyushin IL-76 operated by Georgian airline Sunway slammed into buildings soon after refuelling and taking off from the airport in Pakistan’s business capital.
The plane was carrying eight crew members and 31 tons of supplies for Sudanese capital Khartoum and the crash was so severe that fire engulfed two buildings, as well as adjacent construction sites, the spokesman said.
“Rescue workers have recovered 12 dead bodies, these include eight crew members and four labourers on ground,” Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman Pervez George earlier told AFP.
George has already announced that all eight people on board have have been died.
Authorities said they had brought the fire under control but rescue workers were still searching for bodies.
Had it been crashed Just two streets away from construction site, it would have resulted in severe casualities of Retired Naval officers and their families living in Naval housing scheme(NHS). The worst part after the crash that was faced by people residing in NHS, that people from nearby areas that got inside the naval base started looting. This situation was handled by teenage boys living in nhs that came forwarded as brave citizens.
But the real Question that arises is that it was the third plane accident in four months in Pakistan, a country of 170 million people where inter-city travel is most efficient by air, and the second aircraft to crash after takeoff from Karachi in just four weeks.
Is it just mere incident or some planned conspiracy….??

Kim Kardashian Plays Dead

Kim Kardashian is all over the news, one day you hear she is married, next day you hear she is not! In the last one week, the news has been filled with Kim Kardashian and it makes sense, as she launched her brand Kardashian Konfidential and she needs all the publicity she can get. Therefore we hear news stories about her wearing leather to her credit card getting terminated, however this story really caught my eye.

Kim Kardashian will remove herself from twitter until 1 Million is raised for HIV/AIDS awareness, and till this money is raised, she will play dead and also pose to be dead in a coffin. The event is organized by Alicia Keys’ “Keep a Child Alive” organization. Other celebs who opted to digitally die include Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Ryan Seacrest, Serena Williams and Katie Holmes. The event is supposed to get people to care about AIDS and therefore raise awareness. Kims increasing popularity can make it successful but the amount 1 Million, she could have donated herself, therefore this can be seen as no more but an addition to her publicity. But in any case she is helping raise some money for a good cause and therefore this piece of information was quiet interesting. 

Wikileaks

Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into US Government foreign activities.
These leaks have stirred a worldwide shock and have gained a lot of attention, they are all over the news worldwide. The website is so popular that when i tried to open it, it took me 5 attempts because it has too much load on it. Wikileaks has revealed a lot of new and insider information, the top few are the follows :

•  King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly asked the U.S. to "cut off the head of the snake" -- meaning, it appears, to bomb Iran's nuclear program. Leaders of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern nations expressed similar views.
• Afghan Vice President Ahmed Zia Massoud took $52 million in cash when he visited the United Arab Emirates last year, according to one cable. The Afghan government has been plagued by allegations of corruption.
• The United States has been working to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani nuclear reactor, out of concern that it could be used to build an illicit nuclear device. The effort, which began in 2007, continues.
• The State Department labeled Qatar the worst country in the region for counterterrorism efforts.The country's security services were "hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals," according to one cable.
• Clinton may have asked diplomats to gather intelligence on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's plans for Iran, and information on Sudan (including Darfur), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Iran and North Korea.

There are many more pieces of information that have been revealed but these have stirred up a lot of attention, especially in Pakistan and other countries involved. These cables have also been released through well known news posts like the New York Times, The Guardian of Britain and Der Speigl of Germany. This revelation of new information is going to change a lot of the world history, but the authenticity of it is very questionable, particularly for one reason. Why is the website not blocked by the United States, despite all the damage it might cause to their diplomacy its still running. The US has the abillity to block any website and they can even stop Julian Assange but they are not, which raises questions, maybe they don'd mind this information from being released, because most of its content will raise alot of issues between middle east, Pakistan, Iran , Afghanistan, Korea and China. In other words the Muslim world and the upcoming Asian super power. Though most of it can be true leaking this information to the public will cause conflict among these nations, therefore the US has some benefit  out of wikileak.

From Bebo To Munni To Sheila.

Last year, it was Kareena Kapoor in Bebo mein bebo, the item number in the movie Kambakht Ishq. This year two more item numbers have hit the nation India and obviously Pakistan aswell. One is the track Munni Badnam Hui from the movie dabang. Malika Arora has performed in this number. The other one is Sheila Ki Jawani from the move Tees Maar Khan, this shows Katrina Kaif as lead dancer. All three songs had catchy tunes and got alot of popularity, but thats not the only thing that they have in common. Besides being item numbers with superstars of bollywood dancing to them, they share a common bond of vulgarity in terms of lyrics and the video. Katrina, Kareena and Malaika are seen dancing in revealing clothing and eye-catching dance movies. In Sheila and Munni, they are dancing in the middle of a stag of men. The lyrics of these songs appreciate the hotness and sexyness of these women, as well as their innocence. These grotesque songs have gained more popularity then the movies themselves. It was shocking to me because first there were figures like Rakhi Sawant who used to dance in such tracks but now well known and top actresses have been participating in them. What does this show for Bollywood when the culture of item girl dance tracks are now making way into mainstream Bollywood and the top most actresses are actively participating. It only proves that Vulgarity is on the rise in Bollywood!

Oregon Bomb Suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20023957-504083.html

Another shocking story for all Muslims out there, though I am surprised, and also relieved that this story hasn't been given a lot of attention. A 19 year old Muslim boy namely Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested as he was involved in planting a bomb at the tree lightening ceremony at downtown Portland. What he didn't know was that the bomb was fake and his companion in this mission was an undercover CIA agent, who wanted to catch him in action.
The validity of this story will always remain a mystery because there are some bits that seem exaggerated.Apparently this boy wanted to engage in jihad since 15 but couldn't because of his parents, then he finally got touch with someone in Pakistan who could help him become a "jihadi". If this is 100 percent accurate then this boy seems a crazy sociopath, mostly because of his thrill to kill Americans and enjoy the fireworks. Clearly he is suffering from some psychological illness that has killed his humanity. It is even more troubling to know that the terrorists trying to help him are all in Pakistan, which makes you wonder is it true or is it just a sham to make sure that the terrorists operation in Pakistan keep on running and we all believe that there are terrorists functioning in Pakistan? Somehow the actions of this boy and how his sayings seem exaggerated to me. A person who is involved with  terrorist groups, surely would be very careful and wouldn't respond to anyone without any authenticity, but the boy easily believer the CIA agent and didn't check his identity with his Pakistani terrorist friends. Either he was really dumb and delusional or this is all a sham to support the existing propaganda against Muslims?